Gaining Momentum, 8 women photograph women, Poster image © Chia Moan, 1981. In April 1980 the Half Moon Photography Workshop received an Arts Council grant to set up a women’s photography group.Eight women produced work around the theme of ‘women in Britain today’, producing photographic series about topics that were meaningful to them, from birth and motherhood to female circumcision, women at work, and the Hindu festival Navratri.

This November, discover how trailblazing photography exhibitions toured 1970s Britain with the help of a humble laminating machine.

Four Corners’ latest exhibition tells the remarkable story of the Half Moon touring shows, revealing a little-known moment in British photographic history.

In 1976, photographers at East London’s Half Moon Gallery developed an innovative approach to exhibiting. With little money, a leaky roof and a DIY attitude, they arranged their work on card panels and ran them through a laminator, creating unpretentious exhibitions-in-a-box that travelled the country via British Rail.

Documenting working lives and rural traditions, shedding light on international conflicts and injustices closer to home, the Half Moon touring shows introduced powerful imagery by an emerging generation of socially engaged photographers including Daniel Meadows, Susan Meiselas and Chris Steele-Perkins, alongside the work of activists and artist-educators. Their visually striking sequences of images and text offer a compelling picture of 1970s political concerns and social conditions that still resonates today.

For more information please go to the direct link.