Since we were founded in 1988, Autograph has collected photographic material which reflects our mission and addresses gaps in the visual representation of Britain’s cultural history and its diverse communities. The remit for the collection is to collect, preserve and disseminate the work of contemporary artists and to make available historical images that add to public understanding of how photography relates to cultural identity, representation, human rights and social justice.

We do this through
•  Commissioning the production of new work from contemporary artists, which then enter our collection to create the archive of the future
•  Researching historical and contemporary photographs, to add to the body of knowledge and visual records which provide evidence of black presences

Autograph's collection contains photographic works made by renowned fine artists, social documentary and high street studio photographers, plus personal family albums and vernacular imagery. It covers key periods in the formation of culturally diverse communities in Britain, including the post-war Windrush generation and Victorian era. We hold work by artists including Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Zanele Muholi, James Barnor, Lina Iris Viktor, Yinka Shonibare, Ingrid Pollard, Joy Gregory, Colin Jones, Phoebe Boswell, Raphael Albert, Ajamu – and many more.

The collection currently contains approximately 5,000 prints, 10,000+ negatives, 5,000 slides, archive film, several thousand contact sheets, plus related ephemera. As we add to it by commissioning new work, the exact number of objects in the collection is always growing.