Derek Bishton is a journalist and photographer who worked in the Handsworth area of Birmingham during the 1970s and 1980s alongside other photographers, journalists and designers, including John Reardon and Brian Homer, on photography and community projects. Bishton was also one of the founder members of the Ten.8 collective, which produced an influential photography magazine from 1979 to c.1993, and the collection includes photographic prints, publications, press cuttings, posters, and other promotional material that relates to his work for Ten.8 and other community organisations, groups and education and arts projects during the 1970s and 1980s.

The photographs include work from the Handsworth Self Portrait project, undertaken in Grove Lane, Handsworth by Bishton, Homer and Reardon in 1979 to confront and challenge racist stereotyping through self portraiture, the Home Front project by Bishton and Reardon, and Bishton’s photographs from the Sunsplash reggae festival in Jamaica. The archive also features work by several documentary photographers working in Birmingham and the West Midlands during the 1980s who had work featured in Ten.8 magazine, including Nick Hedges, Roy Peters, Anna Arnone, Armet Francis, Vanley Burke, Orde Eliason, Janine Wiedel and Rhonda Wilson, and photographs taken by members of community arts groups in the city.

In addition to the photographs there is a large number of posters for exhibitions at the Triangle Gallery and elsewhere and a fascinating collection of materials from Bishton’s work with Merrise Crooks, an adult education worker. This includes teaching materials for black histories and publications produced as part of the Handprint project for use in adult literacy and basic skills teaching for young black people. There is also an extensive press cuttings library from the Handprint project, largely consisting of cuttings relating to issues affecting black people in Britain and abroad during the 1980s and early 1990s.

The collection as a whole is a valuable source for the study of documentary and community photography in Birmingham during the 1970s and 1980s, and for the study of community arts, education, welfare and activist groups and organisations, particularly black groups for which very little other archival material is available.

A detailed catalogue of all the documents and photographs in this collection is available in Birmingham City Archives, collection reference MS 2478.

You can also download pdf versions of the catalogue to the collection below:

Derek Bishton and Ten.8 Catalogue - Introduction and Contents page

Derek Bishton and Ten.8 Catalogue - Photographic Work and Associated Material

Derek Bishton and Ten.8 Catalogue - Projects, Publications and Associated Work

Derek Bishton and Ten.8 Catalogue - Handprint Press Cuttings Library