Regional Lead Partnership - For Photographers

Section 01 · Context

About the project the role sits inside

The England Archive is a documentary photography project that becomes a permanent national archive. Year One (2026) covers England across eight regions. Year Two adds Scotland. Year Three adds Wales and Northern Ireland. The project records the people who keep the country’s heritage crafts, traditions, landscapes, and buildings alive, organised around six categories: Makers, Keepers, Carriers, Rememberers, Stewards, and Gatherers. The deliverables are a book (through our literary agent Philippa Sitters), permanent deposits with museum and university archives (the Rural History Centre at the University of Reading is the first formal deposit conversation), and exhibitions in the UK and internationally. The horizon is fifty years.

The legal vehicle is Vernacular Archive CIC, a Community Interest Company limited by guarantee, with an asset lock. There are no shareholders. The project is currently funded by its founders, with institutional funding pathways being built for Year Two onward. The five-tier governance structure the Regional Lead role sits inside (Founders, Board of Directors, Founding Members, Editorial Advisory Board, Contributors) is set out on the about page.

Section 02 · The relationship to the public ladder

How the role relates to the contributor structure

The archive is open to documentary photographers nationally through the contributor programme published at /contribute. Anyone serious about documentary photography can apply, work through the five-tier progression (Field Associate, Field Photographer, Senior Photographer, Archive Fellow, Master), and earn an increasing share of print sales as their published work in the archive grows. That structure is public, meritocratic, and ladder-based.

The Regional Lead role sits alongside that contributor structure, not inside it. It is an invitation-only senior position for one photographer per region. Five Regional Leads will be in place by end of 2027, scaling to eight by 2029 as the project extends across the UK. The role is curatorial as well as photographic, and it gives the lead photographer institutional standing in the project beyond what the open ladder alone confers.

A Regional Lead is also a participating photographer in the published contributor tier ladder. Print share is earned through the tier ladder in the same way as for any other contributor. The Regional Lead role does not bypass the ladder or create a separate revenue track. It adds curatorial responsibility on top of being a senior contributor.

Section 03 · The work

What a Regional Lead does

The work breaks into three strands.

Making the work. Each Regional Lead is the principal photographer for their region, producing subject profiles, location hubs, and the longer documentary forms that fill out the regional record. The Regional Lead’s published work progresses them through the public tier ladder.
Regional curation. Beyond their own work, a Regional Lead identifies other photographers in their region who could contribute via the open Contribute programme, holds a working sense of which subjects in the region are priorities, advises on regional editorial decisions, and stewards the relationships the archive builds in their patch with institutions and subjects.
Institutional contribution. Regional Leads become Founding Members of Vernacular Archive CIC during their tenure, with an option to progress to a Board Director or Editorial Advisory Board position over time.

Section 04 · The wider structure

Where the role sits in the governance picture

The Regional Lead sits inside a layered structure that gives the archive its institutional shape. The full picture is on the about page; the short version is five tiers:

Founders. The originating Members of Vernacular Archive CIC: Mash Bonigala and Bhavani Bonigala. A permanent foundational role.
Board of Directors. The legal governance body of the CIC, registered at Companies House, with fiduciary duty. Small (four to six Directors), constituted from late 2026 onward. Includes one or two senior practitioners alongside the founders, plus governance and sector specialists.
Founding Members. Honorific recognition for people materially important to the archive’s first chapter (2026 to 2028). Optional CIC Membership for those who want institutional standing without director responsibility. Ten to twelve names across the founding window. Includes the first Regional Leads.
Editorial Advisory Board. A named group of editorial and cultural advisors with no legal duty. Homer Sykes, who is writing the foreword to Book One, is the first named advisor. Simon Roberts is in the process of being formalised. Builds to ten to fifteen names over the next eighteen months.
The contributor structure. The open public programme at /contribute, with its five-tier ladder from Field Associate through to Master. Regional Leads are senior participants in this structure, with curatorial responsibility on top.

Section 05 · Copyright, licensing, revenue

What the licence covers and how revenue works

Copyright on every photograph stays with the photographer, always. There is no transfer of copyright to the archive at any stage. The archive receives a non-exclusive licence to use the work for archive purposes - website, book, exhibitions, museum deposits. The licence does not cover third-party editorial licensing or commercial use beyond the archive’s own deliverables. Those rights remain with the photographer.

Revenue follows the structure published at /contribute. For print sales, the split is: tiered share to the photographer (20% at Field Photographer, 28% at Senior Photographer, 34% at Archive Fellow, 40% at Master), 15% to the subject pictured (opt-in, rolling to the Apprenticeship Fund if declined), 10% to the Apprenticeship Fund (always, every print), with the remainder going to the archive to fund editorial labour, curation, sales operations, and the archive’s permanent maintenance.

Regional Leads enter the tier ladder at a level appropriate to their existing body of work and the entries they publish in the archive. A photographer with significant existing documentary practice would typically reach Senior Photographer or Archive Fellow level within their first one to three published archive entries. Print share rises with tier in the same way as for any other contributor.

Subjects receive an archival print after each shoot, choose three images for their own use with credit and attribution to the archive, and have the option of the subject revenue share at the point of consent.

Section 06 · The expectations

What is asked, and what is offered

The role carries real expectations. A Regional Lead is asked:

To document subjects in their region to the archive’s editorial standard, with at least two subject profiles or equivalent work in the first twelve months after formal engagement.
To be available for regional curatorial conversation on a roughly monthly cadence.
To help identify other contributors in their region who would strengthen the open Contribute programme.
To attend occasional gatherings of the Regional Lead cohort, expected to be twice a year once the cohort is large enough to convene.
To engage with the project’s editorial methodology as it evolves.

In exchange, a Regional Lead receives institutional standing as a Founding Member of the CIC, the print-share progression through the tier ladder, marketing support through the archive’s existing channels and partner network, and a long-term professional home for documentary work that aligns with the archive’s mission. There is also the longer-arc option of progression to Board Director or Editorial Advisory Board status as the project’s governance structure matures.

Section 07 · The engagement path

From invitation to formal engagement

The Regional Lead relationship begins informally. The first three to six months are about getting to know each other’s work, agreeing the regional patch, sketching the first subjects, and confirming mutual fit. No formal commitments are made during this phase.

Formal engagement happens through a short Letter of Engagement signed by both parties when the first subjects are agreed and the photographic work begins. The letter is two pages, written in plain language, and covers the licensing terms, the editorial standards, the deposit obligations, the regional curatorial responsibilities, the path through the contributor tier ladder, and the termination terms. It is not an employment contract or a freelance services agreement. It is the operational framework for an ongoing collaboration.

A Regional Lead can step back from the role at any time. Work already in the archive remains under the agreed licence. Work made after the step-back is free of any archive obligation. The intent is partnership, not lock-in.

Section 08 · A note on fit

Who this is for, and who it is not for

The role is invitation-only, by design. It is not a position that can be applied for through the public route. The invitation follows from existing relationships and a body of documentary work that aligns with the archive’s editorial standard.

If you are a documentary photographer reading this page who thinks the archive might be the right home for their work, the path is the public ladder at /contribute. Standing within the archive is built through published work first; the Regional Lead invitation follows from that, not before it. Photographers who become Field Photographers, Senior Photographers, or Archive Fellows through the public route are the natural pool the archive looks to when a regional patch needs a lead.