A new exhibition all about how acts of protest and rebellion have shaped life in Britain is making its debut this month.

The collection of photographs, named Resistance, has been curated by filmmaker Steve McQueen and will be on display at Margate’s Turner Contemporary.

The display documents the past 100 years of activism in the UK, from the suffragette movement in the early 20th century to the 2003 protests against the Iraq war.

The exhibition features work by renowned photographers such as Christina Broom, Vanley Burke, David Hurn, Tish Murtha and Edith Tudor-Hart.

Academy Award-winning writer and director Steve McQueen, best known for the films 12 Years a Slave and Shame, has lifted underrepresented voices and shed light on societal issues throughout his career.

In 2021, the artist released Uprising, a three-part documentary about how events in the 1980s impacted racial relations in the UK, and his 2020 TV anthology Small Axe, about West Indian immigrants living in London from the 1960s to the 1980s, won a BAFTA.

“This exhibition explores how people have challenged the status quo,” says the London-born filmmaker. “A mission that feels especially urgent in today's political climate.”

The collection focuses on photographs taken before the age of digital cameras and highlights some of the lesser-known political movements of the last century.

Moments captured on camera include the Blind March of 1920, which protested poor working conditions for blind people; the coming together of the Gay Liberation Front and Women’s Liberation Movement to protest Section 28 in 1988; and the Battle of Cable Street where the police clashed with the British Union of Fascists and anti-fascism demonstrators in 1936.

The collection also includes images from demonstrations against environmental damage, anti-nuclear campaigns, peace protests and community marches.

In 2023, Clarrie Wallis, the director at Turner Contemporary, was awarded the Ampersand Foundation Award to help produce the Resistance exhibition at the seaside gallery.

“The Ampersand Foundation Award provides vital support for curators to realise ambitious exhibitions amid arts funding scarcity,” says Clarrie. “The award enabled Turner Contemporary to mount a groundbreaking exhibition in Margate, Resistance, with artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen.

“This photography exhibition reframes conventional narratives of British history, prompting viewers to reconsider our shared past.”

The exhibition has also been turned into a book, compiled by Steve and Clarrie, to present a selection of photographs from the collection alongside firsthand witness accounts and expert analysis.

Resistance opens at Turner Contemporary on Saturday, February 22 and will be on display until Sunday, June 1. The exhibition is free to view.