We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For

Autograph has one of the UK’s most significant holdings of photography addressing race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice. In a new exhibition at Photo London, we bring together a selection of work by women and non-binary artists from our collection of photography.

Spanning the late 1980s to the present, We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For traces a cross-generational lineage of artists who use the image as a space of resistance and imagination. From the incisive self-portraiture of Zanele Muholi to the pioneering conceptual practice of Carrie Mae Weems, the exhibition foregrounds artists who have used the photographic image to question who is seen, remembered and represented within the photographic archive.

Spanning portraiture, performance, archival intervention and speculative image-making, the works on display challenge and reshape new ways of seeing the past and the future and offers a rare opportunity to encounter these artists in dialogue.

Most of the works on display were commissioned through Autograph’s ongoing commitment to support artists whose practices challenge dominant histories. This extends to supporting the development of public and private collections, producing and placing editions that advocate for a more inclusive perspective in photography.