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Past Collection Loan
Autograph loaned 12 photographs from our collection by artists Maxine Walker and Vron Ware to Tate Britain, for their exhibition Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s - Now.
This group exhibition, which spanned a whole ocean and half a century, explored work by artists from the Caribbean who made their home in Britain, alongside other British artists who have also made work addressing Caribbean themes and heritage. It celebrated how people from the Caribbean have forged new communities and identities in post-war Britain – and in doing so have transformed British culture and society.
Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s - Now featured over 40 artists, including Aubrey Williams, Donald Locke, Horace Ové, Sonia Boyce, Claudette Johnson, Peter Doig, Hurvin Anderson, Grace Wales Bonner and Alberta Whittle.
Tate Britain
Millbank
London SW1P 4RG
Vron Ware, Black People's Day of Action, 2 March, 1981
Maxine Walker, from the series The Bride, 1989
Vron Ware, Black People's Day of Action, 2 March, 1981
Maxine Walker, from the series The Bride, 1989
Vron Ware, Black People's Day of Action, 2 March, 1981
Vron Ware, Black People's Day of Action, 2 March ,1981
Vron Ware, Black People's Day of Action, 2 March, 1981
Vron Ware, Black People's Day of Action, 2 March, 1981
Maxine Walker, from the series The Bride, 1989
was active within the photographic community between 1985 and 1997 and deeply invested in dialogues that advocated black art practices in Britain. A pioneering artist, she was instrumental in cofounding several creative platforms for black female photographers – such as Monocrone Women’s Photography Collective, Women + Photography and Polareyes – and participated on editorial boards, including at Autograph (then known as the Association of Black Photographers). During this time, Walker regularly reviewed exhibitions and wrote features highlighting the work of her peers, such as Joy Gregory, Adrian Piper and Ingrid Pollard. Walker’s main themes, in her own words, ‘involve the black woman and the family worked in a “pot-pourri” of studio, portraiture and documentary.’
In 2019, Autograph opened the first solo exhibition of Walker's work in more than 22 years at our gallery in London, which toured to Midland Arts Centre in 2021.
Walker resides in Handsworth, Birmingham.
is a writer and photographer. She has worked with Autograph to archive a large collection of images that capture the spirit of anti-racist and anti-fascist resistance from 1997 to 1983. She also writes about gender, race, the social construction of whiteness, national identity, ecology, militarism and the cultural heritage of war.
Her books include Beyond the Pale: white women, racism and history (Verso 1992/2015); Out of Whiteness: color, politics and culture (Chicago 2002), co-authored with Les Back); and Military Migrants: Fighting for YOUR Country (Palgrave 2012). Her next book, Return of a Native: Learning from the Land, addresses the colonial politics of the English countryside and will be published by Repeater Books in March 2022.
In 2017, Autograph accessioned photographs from Ware's series Black People's Day of Action, 2 March, 1981 to our collection, part of our acquisitions programme In A Different Light supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Writer and curator Mariama Attah considers the roles of stereotypes, beauty, Blackness and resistance in Maxine Walker’s photographic practice. Read more
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Banner image: Vron Ware, Black People's Day of Action, 2 March (1981) © Vron Ware/Courtesy of Autograph ABP, London. Supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Loan images: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 + 8) Vron Ware, Black People's Day of Action, 2 March (1981) © Vron Ware/Courtesy of Autograph ABP, London. Supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund. 2, 4, 9) Maxine Walker, from the series The Bride, 1989. First exhibited as part of Intimate Distance, 1989 at The Photographers' Gallery, London. © Maxine Walker, courtesy of Autograph, London.
Other images on page: 1) Maxine Walker at Autograph, London. Photograph by Zoë Maxwell. 2) Vron Ware. 3) Maxine Walker, Cleansing. From the series Black Beauty, 1991. © and courtesy of the artist and Autograph, London.
Autograph is a place to see things differently. Since 1988, we have championed photography that explores issues of race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice, sharing how photographs reflect lived experiences and shape our understanding of ourselves and others.
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