The V&A has recently completed a seven-year mission to plug something of a hole in its photographic archive – images of or by black people in Britain in the second half of the 20th Century. Teaming up with the Black Cultural Archives heritage organisation, the London museum has been able to add over 100 photographs to the half a million in its impressive collection, and 50 of the best and most culturally interesting are being displayed at a new exhibition.
Among the exhibits are portrayals of British-Caribbean life in the 1960s and ’70s by artists including Neil Kenlock, Armet Francis, Dennis Morris and Charlie Phillips. There’s Raphael Albert’s photographs taken at the black beauty pageants he organised from the ’60s to the ’80s, and depictions of the colourful black youth culture of the 1980s and 1990s from “Normski” Anderson. As well as portraiture, the show will include more conceptual works such as Yinka Shonibare MBE’s Portrait of a Victorian Dandy, a series which depicts elaborately staged scenes of upper-class life in the late 19th Century with a black man as the central figure – his outsider overcomes the invisibility of black people in the society of the time, gaining centre-stage by employing the flamboyant behaviour and clothing of a dandy. There’s also a series of images by the influential J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere, who died last year, taken from his long-running project documenting the hairstyles and headties worn by his women of Nigerian heritage. Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s-1990s is running until 24 May.
Armet Francis,
‘Self-Portrait in Mirror’, London, 1964, gelatin silver print
© Armet Francis / Victoria and Albert, London
J. D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere,
‘Untitled, HG 423-04’, from the series Headties, gelatin silver print, Nigeria, 2004.
© The Estate of J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere / Victoria and Albert, London
Neil Kenlock,
‘Untitled [Young woman seated on the floor at home in front of her television set]’,
C- type print, London, 1972
© Neil Kenlock / Victoria and Albert, London
J. D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere,
‘Untitled, HG 423-04’, from the series Headties, gelatin silver print, Nigeria, 2004.
© The Estate of J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere / Victoria and Albert, London
Yinka Shonibare,
‘Diary of a Victorian Dandy’
© Yinka Shonibare / Victoria and Albert, London
Normski,
‘African Homeboy – Brixton, London, 1987’, printed 2011, c-type print.
© Normski / Victoria and Albert, London
