One of Many: An Alternative History of Photography

The birth of photography has long been a contested narrative between the United Kingdom and France, often centred around figures such as Nicéphore Niépce and William Henry Fox Talbot. One of Many opens that conversation outwards, acknowledging that the history of photography is not singular but multiple. Histories are shaped as much by what they exclude as by what they include this project seeks to foreground those omissions and propose alternative viewpoints.

Through a cross-cultural dialogue between France and the United Kingdom, we bring together perspectives from leading curators, scholars, and institutions to explore how photographic histories are constructed and how they might be reimagined.

Invited selectors:
Mark Sealy (Autograph), Taous Dahmani (The Photographers’ Gallery), Christine Eyene (Independent Curator), Sergio Valenzuela Escobedo (ENSP Arles) and Annabel Lacour (Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac).

Biographies

Annabelle Lacour (Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Paris)

Annabelle Lacour has been Curator of the Photographic collection at the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac since 2018. She curated the exhibition Hoda Afshar: Performing the Invisible (2025) and co-curated several international exhibitions, including Reinventing One’s Past (musée Théodore Monod – IFAN, 2026), Re-enchanting Our Lives (IFAN, 2025),Inhabiting This World ( IFAN, 2024), and Opening the World Album: Photographs 1842–1911 (musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, 2023). At the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, she has also curated numerous installations within the permanent galleries. She was co-editor of Mondes photographiques, histoires des débuts, a landmark reference work devoted to the early histories of photography beyond Europe, bringing together contributions from forty-eight international authors. Annabelle Lacour is a member of the selection committee of the Photography Award of the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, dedicated to contemporary photography. Her research focuses on the uses of photography in colonial and postcolonial contexts, as well as on contemporary artistic practices that examine the medium’s legacies, the history of ways of seeing, and the power relations embedded in photographic mechanisms.

Christine Eyene (Independent Curator)

Christine Eyene is an art historian and curator. She is currently Curator of Institut français du Cameroun’s 2027 Cultural Season. She is the founder of Bikoka Art Project, an independent initiative bringing together art, nature, and community in the rural municipality of Lolodorf (Cameroon). She also developed the George Hallett Research Collection aiming to research, preserve, and disseminate the work of South African photographer George Hallett (1942-2020).

Mark Sealy (Autograph, London)

Professor Mark Sealy is Executive Director of Autograph, a position he has held since 1991, and Professor of Photography, Rights and Representation at University of the Arts London, London College of Communication. He is currently serving as the Artistic Director of the Triennial of Photography Hamburg 2026. His research and curatorial practice critically examine the relationships between photography and art, social change, identity politics, race, and human rights. He holds a PhD from Durham University and has written extensively for leading international photography journals and photographic publications. He has curated major exhibitions and photograph festivals, produced numerous artist publications, and commissioned photographers and filmmakers and worldwide. He jointly initiated and co-led the development of Rivington Place which is now home to Autograph, an £8 million capital arts building in London, which opened in 2007. His contributions to photography and the visual arts have been widely recognised. He was awarded the Hood Medal by the Royal Photographic Society in 2007, appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2013 for services to photography, and further appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2022 for services to art.

Sergio Valenzuela Escobedo (École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie (ENSP), Arles)

Artist, researcher and publisher Sergio Valenzuela Escobedo holds a PhD in photography from the École nationale supérieure de la photographie in Arles. After a year at the National School of Art in Johannesburg (NSA), he earned a photography degree in Chile and completed his MFA at the Villa Arson in Nice. He has curated the exhibitions Mapuche at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris and Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation at the Rencontres d’Arles. He has been invited to teach at various schools and institutions, including Parsons Paris, ISSP and Atelier Noua. He also collaborated in ‘1000words’ and co-founded ‘doubledummy’, a platform of critical reflection about documentary photography.

Taous Dahmani (The Photographers’ Gallery, London)

Dr Taous Dahmani is a London-based French, British, and Algerian art historian specialising in photography. She has curated both group and solo exhibitions internationally, including the 2022 Louis Roederer Discovery Award at Les Rencontres d’Arles (France) and the 2024 Jaou Photo Biennale in Tunis (Tunisia). Her solo curatorial projects include SMITH at NOUA (Bodø, Norway), Anastasia Samoylova at the Saatchi Gallery (London, UK), and Adam Rouhana at Kyotographie (Kyoto, Japan). Since September 2025, she is Curator at The Photographers’ Gallery (London, UK). Dahmani’s writing has been widely published in photobooks and journals. She edited Shining Lights: Black Women Photographers in 1980s–90s Britain (MACK/Autograph ABP, 2024), and Assemblies (2025, FOMU/FW:Books).

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