Pete James Collection Prize
Birmingham City University in collaboration with Visual Culture in Britain Journal (Taylor & Francis) is pleased to announce the Pete James Collection Prize.
The Pete James Collection Prize invites applicants to spend time with the Pete James Collection at Birmingham City University.
The Peter James Collection Prize aims to support researchers at any career stage with access to the collection, staff mentorship and a prize of £1000.00 co supported by BCU and the Journal of Visual Culture in Britain on behalf of Taylor & Francis. The successful applicant will be expected to submit a Visual Culture in Focus article (2,000-4,000-word) (see guidance here: Learn about Visual Culture in Britain).
The current prize is underway with two researchers in residence: Clare Hewitt & Rodrigo Orrantia.
Applications for the next prize will open in November 2026.
The proposal should be no longer than one A4 page and must include:
- Name, affiliation or independent researcher and career stage.
- A description of how the applicant proposes to engage with the Pete James Collection and how this approach meets the aims and scope of Visual Culture in Britain. Please see the journal’s aims and scope for future guidance: Learn about Visual Culture in Britain
- A proposed timeline for when they anticipate being on site.
All applications will be reviewed by the editorial team and members of the editorial board. Notification of the award will be communicated by email before the end of November 2025. Applications should be submitted to the Visual Culture in Britain editors.
About Peter and the collection:
The photography collection at the Library of Birmingham stands as a landmark achievement in the cultural life of the city—a former national collection and the only one of its kind developed outside of a national institution. Its depth and distinctiveness are largely the result of Pete James’ vision, curiosity, and conviction about photography’s power to shape and reflect society. The Pete James Archive prize honours this contribution.
Pete first arrived at the City Library in 1989 while researching his MA dissertation on British photographic survey movement at the turn of the 20th century. At that time, there was no dedicated photography role within the library—a fact that made the research slow and laborious. But it must also have felt like discovering a treasure. Recognising the gaps and the potential, Pete secured a part-time contract that would mark the beginning of a 26-year career dedicated to building one of the UK’s most significant photography collections.
From those uncertain beginnings, Pete began to rationalise the library’s disparate photographic holdings, initiating a thoughtful and ambitious programme of acquisition, conservation, and collection management. He oversaw and curated a range of exhibitions—including Rebuilding the Home Front: Photographs by Bill Brandt c.1943 (1995) and Nkunzi: Photographs of Birmingham and South Africa (1998) featuring Vanley Burke—that explored photography’s deep entanglement with social commentary, cultural identity, and urban experiences. Over the decades, Pete commissioned new bodies of work, acquired photographs and archives by photographers of national and international significance, and transformed the collection into an active, living resource for researchers, artists, and the public.
But while he was shaping the institutional archive, Pete was also quietly building another archive—one of his own. At his home in Bearwood, in the west of the city, Pete assembled a parallel body of research material: photocopies, notes, exhibition plans, drafts, correspondence, and annotated articles. Pete James’ personal research papers offer more than just background context—they are rich with insight and full of life. They document the intellectual and emotional journey of a curator deeply embedded in his subject.