Rhonda Wilson, the pioneering founder of Birmingham photographic agency Rhubarb-Rhubarb, has died after a long illness. She was 61.
A photographic artist who saw the potential for new technology to change the world of images, she published Seeing the Light – a Photographer's Guide to Enterprise two decades ago.
In August, 2009 Wilson celebrated the tenth anniversary of Rhubarb-Rhubard's annual portfolio review which exhibited under the same name.
Provocatively titled Photography is Dead, a Mailbox exhibition brought together 120 photographers with 50 reviewers.
Its success reflected the remarkable progress she had made in a decade to establish an event which attracted editors, publishers, agents, curators and gallery owners to see the work of photographers from as far afield as the United States and Canada in the west to Korea and Japan in the East.
The event began life at the Orange Studio, moved to Curzon Street Station and then on to Aston Business School.
Wendy Watriss, co-founder of FotoFest in Houston, Texas, said Rhubarb-Rhubarb had become "one of the best portfolio events in the world... one of maybe four or five".
Wilson was awarded an MBE for her services to photography and international trade in the Queen's New Year's Honours List in 2005.
She died on November 6 and is survived by her husband John McQueen.
