Launched in 1978, Ten.8 provided a forum for West Midlands-based photographers to come together and share images and ideas. It was described by the Jamaican scholar Professor Stuart Hall as “the journal which has most systematically explored the relationship between how we represent the world photographically, the knowledge which these images produce and their implications for power and politics”.
David A Bailey, Jah Bones and his children from the series ‘Positive Images of Black People’ (1984). Image courtesy the artist.
The exhibition focuses on two editions of Ten.8, Black Image (1984) and Body Politics (1987), both produced in collaboration with The Photographers’ Gallery. Alongside material from the Gallery's archive, Ten.8 in Focus illustrates how the journal explored the importance of photography and how images are inscribed with meaning.
By the time of the last edition, Critical Decade, in 1992, Ten.8 had become an internationally acclaimed journal and an influential meeting point for socially concerned creatives and Black Diasporic artists and writers.
Ten.8 in Focus is a snapshot of the dynamic and diverse ways Ten.8 explored ideas around power, representation, race and photography, which are all still relevant today.
A season of collaborative events will examine Ten.8’s influence, including the partnership between Ten.8 and The Photographers’ Gallery in the 1980s.
Ten.8 in Focus: The Legacy of Black Image and Body Politics is a collaboration between The Photographers' Gallery and International Curators Forum and is curated by Ten.8 editors Derek Bishton and Darryl Georgiou.
ICF’s Ten.8 project and fellowship have received support from Foyle Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Hutchins Center for African & African American Research.
