Collaborative project with The Photographers’ Gallery (London, UK)

Using History, builds on the recent project Enter the Archive and our 72-page Manifesto Report which charts the position of women in photography in the UK. During the six months archivist Kathryn Tollervey with the rest of the team at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, one of the world’s most significant spaces for showing photography, explored their archive and investigated how women photographers have been exposed through the gallery’s programming over the last fifty years.

The summary of the report:

Founded in 1971, The Photographers’ Gallery explores how photography is connecting, captivating and radically changing our world today. The Using History partnership programme enabled the Gallery to undertake valuable research within its Archive to investigate the representation and inclusion of women* within The Photographers’ Gallery’s exhibition programme, public programme and senior staG from 1971 to 2023.

Research was broken down into:

· Names of women photographers in solo or group shows

· Number of women photographers compared to men photographers exhibited

· Number of women solo/group shows within the complete programming history

· Number of women solo/group shows compared to men solo/group shows

· Any related projects that connected audiences to the exhibition/programme, e.g lectures, workshops, talks, etc

· Number of times each photographer exhibited

· Living photographers at time of exhibitions

· Governance throughout the years through Trustee and Director representation

· Winners, nominees and jury members of yearly Photographic prize from 1995

Overall findings reveal that the majority of photographers that have exhibited at The Photographers’ Gallery have been men (71% men to 29% women). However, the percentage of contributors to the public programme (photographers or other professionals) are closer in number at 42% women to 58% men. There have been more women (52%) to men (48%) on the jury of the annual photographic prize (1997 – 2023). The findings from Using History have enabled The Photographers’ Gallery to reflect on how we capture data from the exhibition and public programme. We are particularly interested in how this data can inform our equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) values, ensuring equal access, representation and opportunities for currently underrepresented groups within our workforce, collaborators, participants and audiences.

We believe that a diverse and equitable society is essential for creativity and growth and strive to be an inclusive and progressive environment for everyone who visits, takes part and works with us. These findings will inform The Photographers’ Gallery in our future planning, and support our commitment to promote equality and diversity within our programmes. This research has played a key role in informing our future exhibition programme and enables us to back up our ideas with data. From 2024 onwards The Photographers gallery will commit to having a gender balanced programme and programme at least one solo exhibition by a woman photographer each year.

The Photographers’ Gallery is considering hosting or partnering with other photographic institutions to deliver a public conference that addresses the types of opportunities given to women in photography over the last 50 years. Additionally, we would seek to develop innovative ideas for supporting women photographers and other professionals within the public programmes of other institutions.

We are also aware that this research needs to be contextualised within a wider framework of data collection at The Photographers’ Gallery and in the photographic industry as a whole. Therefore, The Photographers’ Gallery is open to hosting a fully funded, collaborative PhD related to the representation and employment of women and non-binary people. Based within our Archive, this research would help to further inform Gallery staG and trustees, as well as other photography and partner institutions across the UK.

* Due to incomplete data, our research did not include non-binary photographers and artists, other professionals involved in the programme, or staG. Our intention going forward is to monitor and address our work through an EDI framework and include statistical data in a range of areas related to under-representation including sex andgender.