Shooting the Past

Darryl Georgiou has been photographing the world around him since 1981, and collecting other people’s photographs for almost as long.

The resulting archive, Mercia B21, is a many-tentacled beast which conjures up Birmingham in all its multiplicity, particularly Handsworth where Georgiou grew up. It also captures a vivid moment in the story of photography as an artform, thanks to his role at the influential Ten.8 magazine in the late 80s and early 90s.

With Ten.8 afterimage opening at the New Art Gallery Walsall and a new chapter beginning for this collection, it’s as good a moment as any to sift through a selection of images and objects with Georgiou.

We’ll be reflecting on what happens when our personal archives become part of history, and how we can best protect and share these archives. We’ll also be raising a glass to Pete James, Curator of Photography Collections at the Library of Birmingham from 1989-2015. (Albeit an imaginary glass – this is a library after all.)

**Image credit: **Joyce and Edginton Thompson, © Darryl Georgiou 1992