The British Museum and V&A have announced a new shared photography collection which will focus on the Middle East. Spanning documentation from the past 30 years, including imagery taken during the recent Arab Spring uprisings, the collection has been funded by a £150,000 grant from the Art Fund. The aim is to 'remedy the under-representation of Middle Eastern photography in UK collections' states the institutions' press material states. The collection has 80 works in it, by 22 artists – including Abbas, Youssef Nabil and Walid Raad – but is set to grow.

Newsha Tavakolian. From the series Mothers of Martyrs, 2006, digital c-print, 50 x 76 cm. Courtesy V&A and Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum

Mehraneh Atashi, Bodiless I, from the series Zourkhaneh Project (House of Strength), 2004, digital c-print, 76.5 x 112.5 cm. Courtesy British Museum and Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum