Maggie Murray
Maggie Murray is a British photojournalist and documentary photographer. In 1983, she was a co-founder of the Format photographic agency. Murray's work is held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery and in the Maggie Murray Archive at Bishopsgate Institute, London.
Life and work
Murray studied photography at Regent Street Polytechnic, London. In the 1970s, she was a member of the Hackney Flashers, a socialist-feminist collective of women that created agitprop. In 1983, Murray and Val Wilmer co-founded Format, the first women's photographic agency. Format aimed "both to raise the profile of female photographers and to tackle widespread preconceptions and prejudices". She travelled widely, with a focus on everyday life and work. Later, she particularly focused on the lives of women and other underrepresented groups.Publications
Publications by Murray
- Our Own Freedom: Photographs by Maggie Murray: introduction and comments by Buchi Emecheta. London: Sheba, 1982,. With text by Buchi Emecheta.
Zines by Murray
- Mildmay Road, Newington Green, N1 1970–1990. Southport: Café Royal, 2025.
Publications with contributions by Murray
- Photography, with Richard Greenhill and Jo Spence. London: Macdonald Educational, 1977..
Exhibitions
Group exhibitions
- Format Photography Agency 1983 – 2003, National Portrait Gallery, London, January–August 2010
- Women and Photography – Ways of Seeing and Being Seen, Photo Oxford Festival, Oxford, November 2020
- Photographing Protest, Four Corners Gallery, London, 2022
- Re/Sisters: a Lens on Gender and Ecology, Barbican Art Gallery, London, October 2023–January 2024
- The 80s: Photographing Britain, Tate Britain, London, November 2024–May 2025
Collections
- Bishopsgate Institute, London
- National Portrait Gallery, London