The Photographers' Gallery was founded in London by Sue Davies opening on 14 January 1971, as the first public gallery in the United Kingdom devoted solely to photography. It is also home to the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, established in 1996 to identify and reward photographic talent and innovation, and the Bar-Tur Photobook Award.
History
Founder and director Sue Davies established the original home of the Photographers' Gallery in a converted Lyon's Tea Bar at No. 8 Great Newport Street in London's Covent Garden. Initially free to the public, the gallery offered a dedicated space for photography and photographers – the first of its kind in the UK. The inaugural exhibition on 14 January 1971 was The Concerned Photographer, an exhibition first shown in New York and curated by photojournalist Cornell Capa. In 1980 the Gallery acquired a neighbouring space at No. 5 Great Newport Street, extending its exhibition spaces and providing room for a bookshop and café. It was also able to accommodate an area for print sales, which focused on promoting and selling the work of British and international photographers with proceeds going towards supporting the public programme. Over the next four decades, the Gallery delivered a programme of exhibitions, talks and educational activities aimed to stimulate engagement with and learning through photography as well as explore its role. The gallery has introduced international photographers Juergen Teller, Robert Capa, Sebastião Salgado, Andreas Gursky, Shirana Shahbazi and Taryn Simon to British audiences, while championing the work of UK based photographers including Martin Parr, Zineb Sedira, Melanie Manchot, Nick Knight, Corinne Day and Nick Waplington. In May 2012 after a major capital campaign and redevelopment plan, The Photographers’ Gallery opened its doors to its new and current home in a former textiles warehouse in Ramillies Street, Soho, London. Designed by Irish architects O'Donnell and Tuomey, this building in the West End, offers three exhibition spaces, a print sales gallery, an education and learning studio, digital media screen, and enhanced areas for the bookshop and café.
The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize annually rewards a photographer who has made the most significant contribution to the photographic medium in Europe during the past year. The prize was set up in 1996 by The Photographers' Gallery. Between 1997 and 2004, the prize was known as the Citigroup Photography Prize. Deutsche Börse has sponsored the competition since 2005, with a £30,000 prize. It has been described as "the biggest of its kind in photography in Europe" and "the most prestigious". Past winners of the £30,000 award include Andreas Gursky, Juergen Teller Luc Delahaye, Robert Adams, Walid Raad, Sophie Ristelhueber, artists’ duo Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, Richard Mosse. The 2017 winner was Dana Lixenberg.
Bar-Tur Photobook Award
The Bar-Tur Photobook Award was created in 2014 in memory of British artist, Lesley-Ann Bar Tur. It supports photographers and artists in realising a photobook project through provision of a £20,000 production fee and partnership with an independent publisher. The inaugural award went to Angus Fraser who published Santa Muerte with Trolley Books in 2014. In 2015, Jack Latham won with Sugar Paper Theories, which was published by Here Press.
Publications
The Photographers' Gallery publishes books for some of its exhibitions. Loose Associations is a quarterly publication from The Photographers’ Gallery which commissions and publishes essays, images and artist projects related to but not defined by its programme.
