The Archive and Research Centre for Culturally Diverse Photography will be housed at Rivington Place in Shoreditch, London, a recently opened centre for diverse contemporary visual arts.

Developed by Autograph ABP, an international photographic agency that addresses human rights and cultural identity issues, the archive will be a modern collection of key historical photographs, from high street studio portraits through social documentary to fine art photography.

“Autograph has led the way in supporting and showing the work of photographic artists from different cultural backgrounds working in the UK or internationally,” said Professor Stuart Hall, Chair of Autograph.

“This pioneering work in the culturally diverse photographic arts now constitutes an unrivalled ‘living archive’ and an essential part of our national cultural heritage which has unique value. It deserves to be much more widely known and used.”

The project will enable Autograph ABP to work with educational and cultural institutions to examine what the agency’s director, Mark Sealy, calls the ‘missing chapter’ in British photographic history.

It will be developed over the next four years to create a resource featuring a wide range of interpretive materials and facilities at Rivington Place including a storage space for the collection, a study area and access to the digital image bank, ready to open to the public in 2010.