Meditations On Love at The Photographers' Gallery

Meditations On Love welcomes you to consider how love is represented, preserved and remembered through an archive of photobooks, novels and nonfiction works curated by the Develop Collective for The Photographers’ Gallery.

Overview

Designed as a reading room, everyone is invited to explore the multitude of books and reflect on the common thread that runs through stories of resilience, community, friendship, subversion, identity and queerness.  

Presenting the many languages of love through a global lens, photobooks from Tami Aftab, Ollie Adegboye, Deana Lawson, Ewen Spencer, and many others explore love’s complex and varying iterations: tender, provocative, queer, defiant and sacrificial.

From Palestine to Switzerland, Argentina to Taiwan, Meditations On Love investigates different facets of love for all who have been both graced by and fallen victim to its numerous manifestations. Together, this collection of eclectic narratives attempts to articulate love’s capacity to endure amidst adversity, and its revolutionary power to resist.   

The Develop Collective 2024 are Charlie Bird, Kairo Urovi, Kymara Akinpelumi, Madeleine Woodhouse, Taja Lewis Boodie and Tolu Elusadé. With special thanks to Rawanne Koumaira, Dr Aleema Gray, D.Wiafe, MACK and TPG Team. 

Develop is a three-year program (2023-2026) that mentors and commissions emerging creatives aged 18-24 through a series of talks and workshops around a photography-based outcome each year.  The 2024 collective has been commissioned to curate an exhibition for Summer 2024 at The Photographers' Gallery. The exhibition will take place on the third floor, a public space dedicated to exploring archives within photography.