James Barnor: Accra/London - A Retrospective (Installation view, 19 May – 24 October 2021, Serpentine) Photograph: Zoe Maxwell

From 19 May to 24 October 2021, the Serpentine Gallery in London hosted the exhibition "James Barnor: Accra/London- a retrospective." You were the exposition curator and made some choices we'll discuss later. First, who was James Barnor, and what was the interest in exposing his archive at Serpentine?

Lizzie Carey-Thomas (LCT): James Barnor is a British Ghanaian photographer who has built up an extraordinary archive of images over six decades. He moved between studio portraiture, photojournalism, fashion and street photography and the cities of Accra and London. In his role as the first photojournalist in Ghana for the Daily Graphic newspaper he captured the events leading up to and immediately after the country’s independence in 1957. In 1959 he moved to the UK where he worked on assignment for the influential South African magazine Drum, shooting now iconic images of models of African descent for the cover and picturing the experiences of the growing Afro-diasporic community. He moved back to Accra in the early 1970s to establish the first colour processing lab in the country on behalf of Agfa Gavaert and spent the next two decades running his portrait studio Studio X23, taking on commercial commissions and embedding himself in the music scene. Connecting all his images, regardless of the motivation for taking them, is his great interest in people and his ability to capture a distinctive intimacy through his portraits. While at the time of selecting the exhibition there were approximately 40,000 images in his archive (with more being discovered and digitised weekly by his Paris-based gallerist Clementine de la Feronniere), his work had been relatively little seen with only a handful of exhibitions previously shown in London (such as at the Black Cultural Archives in 2007 and at Autograph in 2010). We wanted to use the platform of the Serpentine to present the largest survey of his work to date, selected in close dialogue with Barnor, in order to bring his work to new audiences and reveal the artist behind the images.

1953. Beatrice with trademark figurine, Ever Young Studio, Accra Courtesy of Autograph 

Barnor’s archive covers six decades and spans over Europe and Africa). You decided to expose only photos coming from the 1950-80 period. Why did you make this choice? How did you compose the exhibition?

LCT: An element of pragmatism really. The majority of Barnor’s professional work was undertaken during this period and most of his archive falls within this time frame. Many photographs and negatives have been lost in the move between Ghana and the UK, or damaged due to being stored in compromised conditions. So not many images predating 1950 exist and from the early 1980s onwards Barnor’s attention began to move away from his professional photography to managing a children’s drumming and dancing cultural troupe named Fee Hii. The selection was made very much in dialogue with Barnor – we spent many hours spent in conversation in his flat in Brentford, then, during lockdown, online and by phone. In tandem, Barnor was also combing through his newly digitised archive and I would wake up to a daily flurry of text messages and emails as he rediscovered or sought out images with renewed delight, each image opening up a world of reminiscences and stories. Given that Serpentine is a space for contemporary visual art, it was important that the selected was guided by the strength of the images, alongside covering the key historical and cultural moments and reflecting the personal stories and people most important to Barnor.

1971. Sick Hagemeyer shop assistant, Accra Courtesy Autograph

James Barnor: Accra/London - A Retrospective (Installation view, 19 May – 24 October 2021, Serpentine) Photograph: Zoe Maxwell

James Barnor: Accra/London - A Retrospective (Installation view, 19 May – 24 October 2021, Serpentine) Photograph: Zoe Maxwell

James Barnor: Accra/London - A Retrospective (Installation view, 19 May – 24 October 2021, Serpentine) Photograph: Zoe Maxwell

The exhibition is arranged into decades which neatly correspond with Barnor’s move between countries – 50s Accra, 60s UK and 70s Accra – and within each decade divided into themed chronological sections beginning with images taken in Barnor’s now famous portrait studio Ever Young.

The first central theme in James Barnor’s pictures is the African diaspora. Barnor shows how African migrants were and how they lived in England, and he did it with a straightforward language, coming from portraiture. There’s an exciting “play of mirrors” where imagination and subjectivation play an essential role. Can you say something about that?

LCT: Barnor moved to London in 1959, on the suggestion of his friend and mentor A.Q.A. Archampong. Alongside furthering his photographic studies he continued working on assignment for Drum, and many of his shots of Black models taken on the London streets ended up on the cover. One of his most iconic images, now in the Tate collection, is an image of Mike Eghan, the first Black BBC broadcaster, descending the steps at Piccadilly Circus, arms outstretched, against the noisy visual backdrop of the infamous advertising hoardings. In his essay for the catalogue accompaying the exhibition, David Adjaye comments on the way Eghan commands a sense of agency in the image, in no way consumed by the ‘aggresive capitalism...the noise of colonial representations and histories behind him’. Barnor has always been obsessed by signs, and there is a subtle politics in choosing to place his models in recognisable landmarks, a reclaiming of these spaces, stating ‘I am here’. But for Barnor these images are just as important as the more informal shots he took of the circles in which he moved, of family and friends, christenings and weddings, the personal and professional completely interwoven and without hierarchy. Barnor is never separate from the world he documents.

1967. Mike Eghan at Piccadilly Circus, London Courtesy Autograph 

When Ghana became an independent State, James Barnor was there in 1957. He could see and document the election of Kwame Nkrumah and directly assist in spreading Pan-African ideology. Photographing for the Daily Graphic journal, he was one of the pioneers of photography in Africa and helped construct Nkrumah's image as a leader. Can you say something about that?

LCT: Through his work for the Daily Graphic newspaper and Drum and his ability to move easily between different social circles, Barnor had a ringside seat on events leading up to independence and the figures central to forming the new government. However, even before that, a mixture of being on the constant hunt for news stories and grabbing opportunities as they came his way meant he documented some extraordinary moments, such as an intimate meeting with Nkrumah in 1952. He had been invited by Drum to shoot a feature on featherweight boxer Roy Ankrah, aka the ‘Black Flash’, and asked to accompany him on a visit to see Nkrumah at home, a moment captured in the image Self-portrait with Kwame Nkrumah, Roy Ankrah and his wife Rebecca, Accra. Barnor had previously documented the moment Nkrumah was released from prison in 1951 on winning the Gold Coast legislative election and has commented on how he liked his ideas but ‘I didn’t photograph him politically’, instead feeling free to be led wherever the news took him.

What meaning does "decolonisation" take on in James Barnor's photographs?

LCT: Barnor has commented that it was highly unusual to find a Black person behind the camera in 1960s London and that Drum gave him the opportunity and freedom to direct the shots, choreographing every aspect from who he chose to photograph to where and how he did so. There’s a real sense of agency and self-determination present in all Barnor’s work, regardless of whether commission, studio portrait or family snap shot. And I believe this goes in two directions: Barnor as photographer, and sitter as collaborator. There’s never a sense of a passive subject, impartially documented, rather they appear in command of the moment, at home in their surroundings and in dialogue with Barnor.

1979. Sister holding Brother, Accra Courtesy Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière