Photography versus Thatcher: The Photo Co-op Archive, prints and objects, 1979 to 1986 – Photofusion’s origin story tells the story of the early years of the Photo Co-op, the founding organisation which later grew into Photofusion. Opening on 14 November 2024, this exhibition features vintage items contributed by the participating photographers from their archives that now form the Photo Co-op Archive at the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol.
Curated by Chris Boot, and in collaboration with the Martin Parr Foundation, the exhibition features photographs by Janis Austin, Corry Bevington, Luis Bustamante, Gina Glover, Crispin Hughes, Sarah Saunders, Vicky White and Sarah Wyld. These include a wide selection of original library photographs used to promote social causes, with objects and documents from the time, and examples of laminated panels from campaign exhibitions. Seen together for the first time, these archival artefacts reveal the ‘world view’ the Photo Co-op created in photographs – a style of advocacy for progressive causes and, in particular, for the solidarity of women, made for and with the community.
Photo Co-op began as a group of campaigning photographers in 1979, making pictures to engage in the battle against the social and economic values of Margaret Thatcher as they were rolled out in Wandsworth. The organisation thrived with the support of the Greater London Council (the GLC) – a thorn in Thatcher’s side – until she abolished it in 1986. Photo Co-op later moved to Brixton and became Photofusion.
A network of volunteer photographers and journalists, many who made pictures for the community newspaper ‘Pavement’, got organised as ‘Wandsworth Photo Co-op’ and mounted an exhibition of work by 25 photographers on the street outside Battersea Arts Centre in 1979. Within months, a mix of photographers, teachers, social workers, community activists, students, and others invested in their local community were meeting regularly, buying materials together, lending their help as photographers to community causes, producing campaigns, sharing darkrooms, making exhibitions and calendars, and starting a photo library.
The growing Co-op was supported by the Greater London Council (GLC)’s innovative, Community Arts Panel; initially to pay three women a shared salary to engage with local women’s issues in southwest London. Their work included campaigns to Save the South London Hospital, on behalf of women, and against privatization. The GLC supported establishing an office and community darkroom in 1984 and doubled its support of now six photographers.
The Co-op’s photo library of campaign images was loaned for reproduction to local and national causes and used in multiple campaign posters and leaflets by the GLC itself, arguably Thatcher’s most articulate institutional critic, including by its Low Pay, Women’s and Popular Planning Units. The Co-op’s style of documentary advocacy pictures became central to the GLC’s visual language until its abolition. Its abolition by Thatcher - alongside winning the Falklands War, beating the miners, and shrinking public services – was one of Thatcher’s signature acts.
The women who won support as “Women’s Photo Co-op” in 1982 were Gina Glover, Sarah Saunders and Corry Bevington. With additional GLC support they grew to include Janis Austin, Vicky White, and Crispin Hughes. Chris Boot joined the membership as its first administrator in 1984 and Luis Bustamante its first education worker in 1985. After GLC funding ended, Photo Co-op continued with the support of the regional Arts Council, moving in 1990 to a new space in Brixton with a gallery, a teaching darkroom and a studio focusing on education and enabling photographers in the community. With the move in 1990, Photo Co-op rebranded as Photofusion, continuing to run the Photo Library until 2015.
Chris Boot (Curator) says: ‘It has been great to have the opportunity to explore the history of Photo Co-op, where, just out of college in 1983, and wanting to be part of the cultural resistance to Thatcherism, I got my first job in photography. The photographers involved at the outset - and the heirs of those who since died – have dug into many storage boxes to put together this archive of objects of their time: photographs, laminated panels, press clippings, minutes, etc, now the Photo Co-op Archive at the Martin Parr Foundation. It’s a compelling story, of a women-led workers’ co-op, forged in the particular fires of Wandsworth – the front line of Thatcher’s sweeping cuts – initially activists-with-cameras who volunteered their picture-making skills to local groups and campaigns, who then won funds from the Greater London Council to pay photographers to make campaign pictures for and with the community, and where the pictures were in turn used widely by the GLC itself, becoming central to their campaigning visual language. Women are usually the heroes of these vivid documentary-advocacy photographs, very of their historical moment that, between them, offer a coherent idea of how society might value and care for its citizens, while challenging prevailing stereotypes of gender, race and class’.
Jenni Grainger, Director of Photofusion says: ‘We are delighted to be presenting this exhibition in collaboration with the Martin Parr Foundation. It speaks both directly to the story of how Photofusion came into existence, and to the fact that, 30 years on, we remain a place for people to express their creativity, their views, and where photographers are supported at all stages of their careers. Our new home on Beehive Place, in the heart of Brixton, is the perfect place to exhibit the ‘world view’ that was created by photographers at the beginning of our organisation and understand the social causes they were championing at the time’.
Photography versus Thatcher: The Photo Co-op Archive, prints and objects, 1979 to 1986 – Photofusion’s origin story
15 November 2024 to 4 January 2025
https://www.photofusion.org/
Image: (top) Mrs Quick's Hospital, Panel exhibition. © Gina Glover_Photo Co-op. Courtesy Martin Parr Foundation. (Lower:) Demo Against National Front, who were meeting in Battersea Town Hall during 1979 General Election. © Sarah Wyld_Photo Co-op. Courtesy of Martin Parr Foundation
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