GRAIN

Broken Promises is now open and shows work created during my year long collaboration with @grain_projects and @hivecollege . The exhibition is displayed in the Spotlight area on the ground floor of @the_library_of_birmingham until 25 July 2026. This new, intimate body of work by Birmingham-based photographer Maria Reaney brings together six participants from Birmingham and the wider region to collaborate on a series of pictures. The project explores the intersection of the cost of living crisis, the impact of government policy and living with a disability through a series of personal narratives which represent ongoing challenges, an unequal and inconsistent society and individual dignity and resilience. It’s crucial to highlight honest and authentic lived experiences during an era of mass misinformation. UK citizens are experiencing a welfare crisis whilst the government, and crown, seek to further remove financial support from those who desperately need it. We don’t want broken promises we want holistic action to improve the welfare landscape of the UK. ⚡️⚡️Opening Event: Tuesday 26 May , 5:30pm-7pm⚡️⚡️ Exhibition printed by @precision.imaging #welfarenotwarfare #brokenpromises #socialdocumentaryphotography #documentaryportrait #disabilityawareness

Join us on the 26th May from 5.30 PM - 7 PM for the launch of #BrokenPromises by @Maria_Reaney at The Library of Birmingham The exhibition continues until 25th July 2026 This new, intimate body of work by Birmingham-based photographer Maria Reaney brings together six participants from Birmingham and the wider West Midlands to collaborate on a series of pictures. The project explores the intersection of the cost of living crisis, the impact of government policy and living with a disability through a series of personal narratives which represent ongoing challenges, an unequal and inconsistent society and individual dignity and resilience. The project is supported by @hivecollege , @the_library_of_birmingham , @MyBCU and @aceagrams

Tickets now available - Everything in the forest is the forest: Photography, Connection, and Ecology. Symposium at MAC, Birmingham Friday 19th June, 9.30am – 5pm, Foyle Studio, MAC, Birmingham Tickets £25.00 / £20.00 (plus booking fee) Link in bio to book Communal Lunch & Lumen Printing workshop included The symposium is being shaped around the values of the forest, thinking about how these might be embodied in an event of this nature. We are bringing together different disciplines to exchange knowledge and skills, encourage intergenerational perspectives, share a community meal, and create space for collective discussion and connections. Speakers include: Allan Brown @hedgerow.couture Aliki Braine @alikibraine Clare Hewitt @clarehewittphotography Hospital Rooms @_hospitalrooms Marchelle Farrell @afroliage Max Ferguson @maxferguson Tami Aftab @tamiaftab & Tony Aftab @serfrazkitchen Curated by Clare Hewitt and produced with GRAIN Projects, UWE Bristol, and University of Birmingham. The symposium is part of Everything in the forest is the forest premiered as a solo exhibition at Impressions Gallery, Bradford as part of the UK City of Culture programme. It was shown at Peckham 24 (2025), featured in New Scientist (2025) and Photoworks+ (2025), and exhibited at Landskrona Foto Festival, Sweden (2022), before being presented at MAC, Birmingham (2026). Tickets £25.00 / £20.00 (plus booking fee), Link in bio to book

Launching tomorrow (1st May) with events taking place on Saturday (2nd May) - @luna.photobham ‘Care & Defiance’ The world as seen by women, women-identifying and non binary photographers Exhibition runs 1-27 May 2026 at Centrala @centrala_space , Birmingham Launch from 5pm on Friday 1 May, with artist talk tour 6-7pm and party from 7pm Workshop 1-2pm and panel discussion 2-3pm on Saturday 2 May Luna presents Care & Defiance, a group exhibition that explores the female gaze in all its multiplicity. The show features work by 11 contemporary photographers selected via an open call, two national photo collectives, POST Photo Collective @postphotocollective and UK Black Female Photographers @ukbftog , a Lisel Haas Archive curation in partnership with Bertz Associates @bertzassociates and a salon showcase of outstanding images submitted to the open call. Care & Defiance is inspired by Bell Hooks in viewing love as an act of resistance. Across staged portraiture and documentary image-making, collage, performance and analogue processes, this exhibition explores timely themes of identity and community, urban and domestic space, migration, memory and the politics of everyday life.

Huge thanks to the brilliant @joy_gregory_studio , @aliciabrucephoto and @edmund_clark for their fantastic presentations as part of our Spring Photographers Talk Series. Thanks to all the audiences who joined us and contributed to the discussions online and in person. Supported by @aceagrams @MyBCU @Bcu_Photo @artactivisms @birmingham_school_of_art

Photographers Talk @joy_gregory_studio 28th April | 6.00 PM Birmingham School of Art. Tickets - £5.00 + Booking Fee Book via link in bio Joy Gregory, a graduate of Manchester Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art, has developed a practice focused on social and political issues, particularly exploring history and cultural differences in contemporary society. One of her notable contributions is challenging the conventional notions of beauty and its language in relation to race and gender. Autoportrait 1990, for example, comprises of a series of self-portraits of the artist made in response to the lack of presentations of Black women’s beauty. It was published time in Ten8’s ‘Critical Decade’ accompanied by Stuart Hall’s essay on representation. Gregory is associated with Black British photography movement, alongside artists such as Sunil Gupta and Roshini Kempadoo who were also considering notions of cultural difference through their photography. Gregory has worked closely with Autograph, the Association of Black Photographers, with whom she continues to associate to date.   Gregory has received numerous awards and has exhibited her work worldwide, participating in various festivals and biennales. In 2019, she was honoured with an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society. She and Whitechapel Gallery are the winners of Freelands Award 2023. Her work can be found in esteemed collections such as the UK Arts Council Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia, and Yale British Art Collection. Currently residing and working in London, she teaches Fine Art Photography at Camberwell School of Art, University of the Arts London. Gregory is editor of the book Shining Lights: Black Women Photographers in 1980s–90s Britain (published 2024), the first anthology in the field in which her work also features. Supported by @aceagrams @mybcu @bcuphoto @artactivisms @birmingham_school_of_art

Upcoming Exhibition! #BrokenPromises by @Maria_Reaney 11th May – 25th July 2026 Library of Birmingham Launch Event – 26th May | 5.30 PM – 7.00 PM This new, intimate body of work has been created by Birmingham based photographer, Maria Reaney. To create the project she worked with six young people from across the city and wider West Midlands region to explore the impact of the cost of living crisis, government policy and living with a disability. These collaborative stories speak of perpetual struggle in today’s inconsistent and unequal society. This work is driven by the need to celebrate the uniqueness and majesty of humanity; highlighting the beauty and diversity of everyday people. Image Credits: 1 - Holly 2 - Fajr 3 - Ruth 4 - Zain The project is supported by @hivecollege ., Library of Birmingham and @aceagrams

Photographers Talk @joy_gregory_studio 28th April | 6.00 PM Birmingham School of Art. Tickets - £5.00 + Booking Fee Book via link in bio Joy Gregory, a graduate of Manchester Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art, has developed a practice focused on social and political issues, particularly exploring history and cultural differences in contemporary society. One of her notable contributions is challenging the conventional notions of beauty and its language in relation to race and gender. Autoportrait 1990, for example, comprises of a series of self-portraits of the artist made in response to the lack of presentations of Black women’s beauty. It was published time in Ten8’s ‘Critical Decade’ accompanied by Stuart Hall’s essay on representation. Gregory is associated with Black British photography movement, alongside artists such as Sunil Gupta and Roshini Kempadoo who were also considering notions of cultural difference through their photography. Gregory has worked closely with Autograph, the Association of Black Photographers, with whom she continues to associate to date.   For nearly three decades, Joy has been involved in art education and served as an Honorary Research Associate at the Slade School of Art [UCL], where she developed new work for the Diaspora Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. In 2019, she received commissions from the Black Cultural Archives to create a new work celebrating the accomplishments of prominent Black British Women including Linda Dobbs and Baroness Doreen Lawrence. In more recent years has worked with a range of institutions making new work in response to their collections including ‘Sweetest Thing’ for RAMM (2022) and ‘A Taste of Home’ for AOTU (2024).  In the fall of 2023 she was a Visiting Scholar at Yale Centre of British Art in the USA where she developed on the framework for her latest work ‘The Last Speakers’.  Twenty years in the making this short film completed for her major retrospective Catching Flies with Honey at the Whitechapel Gallery, London accompanied by a major publication of the same name. Supported by @aceagrams @@MyBCU @bcuphoto @artactivisms @birmingham_school_of_art

Everything in the forest is the forest by @ClareHewittPhotography opens tomorrow @MAC_Birmingham . Launch event 24th April from 6 PM Responding to a government report suggesting that loneliness and isolation were increasing in rural areas of the UK, acclaimed photographer Clare Hewitt presents new work that celebrates trees and their remarkable ability to nurture and communicate. Setting up a studio within a circle of twelve oak trees, Hewitt documented the forest and its seasonal changes, exploring nature and the forest through a range of sustainable photography techniques. The exhibition is open daily from Sat 18 Apr - Mon 31 Aug | Arena Gallery, Midlands Arts Centre | Free entry, donations welcome @impgalleryphoto touring exhibition, presented as part of Bradford 2025, UK City of Culture. Kindly supported by Arts Council England and players of the Postcode Lottery. Image Credit: The Peace Tree, Clare Hewitt

Photographers Talk @joy_gregory_studio 28th April | 6.00 PM Birmingham School of Art. Tickets - £5.00 + Booking Fee Book via link in bio Joy Gregory, a graduate of Manchester Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art, has developed a practice focused on social and political issues, particularly exploring history and cultural differences in contemporary society. One of her notable contributions is challenging the conventional notions of beauty and its language in relation to race and gender. Autoportrait 1990, for example, comprises of a series of self-portraits of the artist made in response to the lack of presentations of Black women’s beauty. It was published time in Ten8’s ‘Critical Decade’ accompanied by Stuart Hall’s essay on representation. Gregory is associated with Black British photography movement, alongside artists such as Sunil Gupta and Roshini Kempadoo who were also considering notions of cultural difference through their photography. Gregory has worked closely with Autograph, the Association of Black Photographers, with whom she continues to associate to date.   Gregory has received numerous awards and has exhibited her work worldwide, participating in various festivals and biennales. In 2019, she was honoured with an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society. She and Whitechapel Gallery are the winners of Freelands Award 2023. Her work can be found in esteemed collections such as the UK Arts Council Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia, and Yale British Art Collection. Currently residing and working in London, she teaches Fine Art Photography at Camberwell School of Art, University of the Arts London. Gregory is editor of the book Shining Lights: Black Women Photographers in 1980s–90s Britain (published 2024), the first anthology in the field in which her work also features. Supported by @aceagrams @mybcu @Bcu_Photo @artactivisms @birmingham_school_of_art

We are delighted to host a talk by Artist @joy_gregory_studio on the 28th April from 6.00 PM at Birmingham School of Art. Tickets - £5.00 + Booking Fee Book via link in bio Joy Gregory is an award-winning artist specialising in photography who is known for her work concerning issues of identity politics and 'beauty' culture.  A graduate of Manchester Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art she has worked and exhibited widely both in the UK and internationally participating in numerous biennales and festivals. Born in the UK to Jamaican parents, she has always been intrigued by the impact of European history and colonization on global perceptions of identity, memory, folklore, and traditional knowledge. As a photographer, she employs various media, including video, digital and analogue photography, and Victorian print processes. In 2002, Gregory was awarded the NESTA Fellowship, which provided her with the time and freedom to research a significant project on language endangerment. The first instalment of this series was the video piece titled "Gomera," which premiered at the Sydney Biennale in May 2010. Her work is featured in both private and public including the Victoria & Albert Museum, UK Government Art Collection, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia and Yale University, New Haven.  Her major retrospective Catching Flies with Honey opened at the Whitechapel Gallery, London in October 2025  and is accompanied by a publication of the same name.  She is the editor of ‘Shining Lights’, an anthology of Black British Women’s Photography in 1980s and 1990’s published by MACK/Autograph available February 2024 Supported by @aceagrams @mybcu @bcuphoto @artactivisms @birmingham_school_of_art

We are delighted to announce Jeremy Chih-Hao Chuang (@jeremyhao.chuang ) & Eliza Bennett (@elizabennett_art ) as the selected artists for the GRAIN 2026 Bursary award. About Jeremy Chih-Hao Chuang: Jeremy Chih-Hao Chuang is a Taiwanese artist based in London, UK. Chuang holds a master’s degree at the Royal College of Art. He focuses extensively on the interrelationship between home and self-identity from an autobiographical perspective, which he derived into a subjective language that uses photography to engage in visual contemplation. With his studies and art, he predominately concentrates on the integration of interdisciplinary media, sculpture and installations, specific bodies and spaces with photography. About Eliza Bennett: Eliza Bennett is a multi-disciplinary arts practitioner & facilitator, based in Stafford UK. Her work evolves artful methods for communicating a range of sensory impressions by engaging in playful, attentive research within the landscapes and places she is situated. Works often tap into a bodily recognition beyond language, inviting us to consider the affective, enchanted character of the worlds in which we are enmeshed. What arises are material propositions for ways of being, reading and viewing that are attuned to both emergence and loss. Supported by @aceagrams