Revolutionary change requires a challenge to the established order, protest, insurgency, new ideas and ideologies and transformational processes.

Photography itself is a revolutionary medium, both because of the technological and creative possibilities it affords, and for its accessibility. In the early 20th century, the medium offered a transformative vision for artists, and new ways to represent the rapidly changing world around them. Digital technology has dramatically changed ordinary people’s relationship with photography and we now consume and process on a daily basis a vast quantity of image-based information on our computers, mobile phones and other devices.

Diffusion 2017 examined how photography and digital imaging have advanced revolutionary ideas, and played a key role in popular protest, bearing witness to societal injustices and bringing them to public attention, from the perspective of professional artists and photographers, and latterly citizen photojournalism.

A special exhibition, Zeitgeist, captured through the perspectives of 18 artists from five continents how the news feeds at the time were dominated by Trumpism, Brexit, the climate emergency, the migrant and refugee crisis, border control, poverty and religious intolerance.