Sun Artists: A Serial of Artistic Photography

Sun Artists: A Serial of Artistic Photography opens at the V&A South Kensington on Saturday 17 October, and it's one of those displays that works as much as a history lesson as it does an exhibition. It brings together all eight photographers featured in Sun Artists, a short-lived but ambitious publication that ran from 1889 to 1891. Among them are Julia Margaret Cameron and Eveleen Myers, two names that should ring a bell if you've spent any time with early photography.

To understand why this is being pulled together, it helps to know what Sun Artists actually was. It was a deluxe periodical that spent its brief run arguing that photography belonged in the world of art. Each issue focused on a single British photographer and featured four of their best works as finely crafted photogravure prints, paired with an essay making the artistic case for the medium. The high-quality printing and design weren't just for show; they were intended to elevate the photographs themselves. It only made it through eight issues before it folded — likely because producing a periodical that lavish was an expensive gamble — but it set a precedent for later publications like Alfred Stieglitz's Camera Work (1903-17).

The display is supported by The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation and hangs in the Kusuma Gallery, which is dedicated to the theme of Photography and the Book. That's a fitting home for this, as the gallery explores how books have been fundamental to photography since the 1840s, and Sun Artists is a prime example of that relationship in action.

It runs from Saturday 17 October 2026 to Sunday 9 May 2027, in the Photography Centre, Room 98 (Kusuma Gallery) on Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL. Entry is free, and the gallery is open 10:00 to 17:30.