About
Val Williams is a writer and curator based in London. She has curated numerous major exhibitions in the UK and internationally and is a co editor of the Journal of Photography&Culture.
She is currently Professor of the History and Culture of Photography at the University of the Arts London. She is a co-editor of the Journal of Photography&Culture and has curated exhibitions for the Barbican Art Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Media Museum, Tate Britain and the British Council. From 1999-2002 she was Curator of Exhibitions and Collections at the Hasselblad Center in Sweden and was the founder co-director of the Shoreditch Foto Biennale (1996, 1998). Her previous publications include The Other Observers (1986), Illuminations (with Liz Heron, 1995), Who's Looking at the Family (1994), The Dead (with Greg Hobson, 1995), New Natural History (with Greg Hobson, 1999), Look at Me (1998), Anna Fox: Photographs 1983-2007 (2007); How We Are (with Susan Bright, 2007) When We were Young: Street and Club Portraits by Derek Ridgers (2008); Daniel Meadows: Edited Photographs from the 70s and 80s (2011).
1972-1977
Founder Co-Director Impressions Gallery, York
1977-1981
Director, Impressions Gallery, York.
1981
Independent Writer and Curator (Projects listed separately).
1996
Co Director Shoreditch Biennale
1999-2002
Curator, Hasselblad Center,Goteborg, Sweden.
2000
Visiting Tutor, London College of Fashion
2001
Curator, Printemps de Septembre a Toulouse, France
2002
Research Fellow, London College of Printing and London College of Fashion
2004
Director, University of the Arts Photography and the Archive Research Centre
2004
Professor, University of the Arts London
2008
Editor, Journal of Photography&Culture
2013
Director, Moose on the Loose Biennale of Research
Exhibitions: Selective List
1974
Home Sweet Home: Martin Parr
(Impressions)
1976
Angus McBean
(Impressions)
1979
Cecil Beaton
(Impressions)
1979
Peter Rose-Pulham
(Impressions)
1980
John Havinden: Photographs. Co-curated with David Alan Mellor
(Impressions)
1983
The Selectors’ Show: Hannah Collins, Jo Spence, Susan Hiller et al
(Camerawork)
1986
Women’s Photography in Britain: 1850-1950
(National Museum of photography, Film and Television and UK tour)
1993
The Village: Photographs by Anna Fox
(Worthing Museum and the Edge Gallery, London)
1994
Who’s Looking at the Family?
(Barbican Art Gallery, London)
1995
Warworks:Women, Photography and the Art of War
(Foto Biennale Rotterdam, 1994, Victoria and Albert Museum London, 1995. UK tour 1995-6. Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa, 1996)
1996
The Dead (National Museum of Photography, Film and Television) 1996. Touring to Mois de la Photo, Montreal in 1997.
Shoreditch Biennale
Exhibitions: Gareth McConnell, Clare Strand, Chris Harrison, Anna Fox, Angels
Country Life: Permanent commissioning and public art programme
(Petworth House and Leconfield Hall, Petworth)
1997
National Portraits: Photographs from the 1970s by Daniel Meadows
(Viewpoint Gallery, Salford and Montage Gallery, Derby and Tour)
Street Dreams: Contemporary vernacular photography from India
(Shoreditch Biennale at Standpoint Gallery, London and then touring to Bradford, Salford, Bath, Dublin and Paris)
Seeing Red: Clare Strand / Shoreditch Biennale New Contemporaries
(National Museum of Photography; Viewpoint Gallery; Royal Photographic Society; Imago, Salalamaca and touring)
Very Miscellaneous: Joachim Schmid
(Fabrica, Brighton)
Teen
(For Pierre Chevalier Gallery, Paris)
Look at Me: Fashion and Photography in Britain 1960 to the Present
(Kunsthal Rotterdam and touring. British Council, 1998. Milton Keynes Gallery 2001. catalogue)
1998
The Artist and the Archive: Shoreditch Biennale
Bed and Breakfast: Photographs by Susan Lipper.
(Photoworks, Publication)
1999
New Natural History
(National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, September 1999, Catalogue)
Modern Times I and II
(Hasselblad Center, Sweden 1999, Publication)
Marjaana Kella, Anna Gaskell and Joachim Schmid
(Hasselblad Center, Sweden 1999, Publication)
2000 - present
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