We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Autograph

Visual arts charity Autograph presents a new exhibition at Photo London 2026 questioning who is seen, remembered and represented in the canon of photography. The exhibition will bring together a selection works by women and non-binary artists from the charity’s collection of photography – offering a rare opportunity to encounter these artists in dialogue.

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 quest the archive.

Through portraiture, performance, archival intervention and speculative image-making, the works challenge and reshape new ways of seeing the past and the future.

Autograph has one of the UK’s most significant holdings of photography – addressing race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice. 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.

An online gallery will accompany the exhibition, with prints available for sale via Artsy. Autograph ABP is a registered charity in England and Wales (no. 1127712). All sales support Autograph’s work as a charity, and the artists.

Curated by Bindi Vora
Artists: Hélène Amouzou, Poulomi Basu, Joy Gregory, Nhu Xuan Hua, Sasha Huber, Mónica de Miranda, Zanele Muholi, Henna Nadeem, Eileen Perrier, Ingrid Pollard, Silvia Rosi, C. Rose Smith, Thato Toeba, Lina Iris Viktor and Carrie Mae Weems.