Ten.8 Afterimage Exhibition Revives Radical Photography Journal at Walsall

The exhibition 'Ten.8 Afterimage' at The New Art Gallery Walsall (until 13 September) reactivates the legacy of Ten.8, a groundbreaking photography journal published in Handsworth, Birmingham from 1979 to 1992. The journal rejected photography as neutral, insisting it was political and shaped by power structures. The exhibition features works from the 1980s and 1990s alongside contemporary practices, including a new commission by British Ghanaian artist Heather Agyepong, an Aesthetica Art Prize alumnus. Other artists include Vanley Burke, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, Sunil Gupta, and Ingrid Pollard. The exhibition is curated in partnership with International Curators Forum (ICF) and emphasizes Birmingham as an active engine of critical art interventions, not a peripheral backdrop. It insists on the continued relevance of Ten.8's questions about representation, control of images, and photography's responsibilities in times of social fracture.