Paul Wright is a curator and publisher specialising in British documentary photography. He founded British Culture Archive in 2017 and has led its development from an independent online archive into a photographic agency and publisher working across representation, exhibitions, publishing, editions, image licensing and editorial research.
Wright leads BCA’s curatorial programme, identifying photographers and archives, selecting and sequencing bodies of work, and directing how they are researched, written about and presented. His focus includes photography documenting working-class life, youth culture, music, housing, protest, work and social change in post-war Britain.
His interest in documentary photography was shaped by the photographs of British society and culture he encountered while growing up during the 1980s. He established BCA after recognising that important photographers and bodies of work were often disconnected from wider audiences. Through its galleries and editorial programme, he has helped bring established and under-recognised archives into renewed public circulation.
Wright also established The People’s Archive in 2017, BCA’s crowdsourced collection of family photographs and personal snapshots documenting everyday life in twentieth-century Britain.
Since 2019, he has curated BCA exhibitions and photographic presentations in London, Manchester, Berlin and Barcelona, including projects developed with the Science and Industry Museum and Chanel. As publisher, he has developed books and exhibition publications with BCA photographers, including Peter J Walsh’s Original Ravers, Jon Shard’s Oasis Fans, 1996 and Tish Murtha: Vandalism on a Grand Scale.
In 2026, work by five photographers represented by BCA—Peter J Walsh, Jon Shard, Tony Davis, Mark McNulty and Rob Bremner—was selected for The 90s: Art and Fashion at Tate Britain.
Wright continues to direct BCA’s development as a specialist photographic agency and publisher, strengthening its representation, publishing, editions and institutional relationships in the UK and internationally.
Tish Murtha: Vandalism on a Grand Scale, 2026
Publisher. Published by British Culture Archive in collaboration with the Tish Murtha Archive.
Original Ravers by Peter J Walsh, 2025
Publisher. First edition presenting 51 previously unseen portraits made at The Haçienda in 1991.
Oasis Fans, 1996 by Jon Shard, 2025
Publisher. Limited-edition publication accompanying the British Culture Archive exhibition.
British Culture Archive at Brit Under Fest, Poble Espanyol, Barcelona, 2026
Curator of BCA’s 25-work photographic presentation.
British Culture Archive x Chanel, Manchester, 2023
Curator of the BCA pop-up exhibition developed for the 2023/24 Métiers d’art programme.
Life in the North, 1970s–1980s, Bury Art Museum, 2023
Curator.
Together As One, The Refuge, Manchester, 2022
Curator.
A Woman’s Work, The Refuge, Manchester, 2022
Curator.
Use Hearing Protection: The Early Years of Factory Records, Science and Industry Museum, Manchester, 2021–2022
Curator of the British Culture Archive photographic presentation.
The People’s City, The Refuge and Manchester Central Library, 2020–2022
Curator.
British Culture Archive at British Shorts, Sputnik Kino, Berlin, January–February 2020
Curator.
British Culture Archive at The Social, London, 2019
Curator.