Art, Design & Fashion
Landmark
James Barnor
born 1929
Photographed Ghana into independence, and then London's Black sixties
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Ghana Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
His Ever Young studio caught Accra on the edge of independence; then he moved to London and photographed the Black Britain of the 1960s for Drum. The world caught up with him at ninety.
James Barnor was born in Ghana in 1929 and opened his Ever Young studio in Accra in the early 1950s, photographing a country on the point of independence in portrait and reportage alike.
He moved to London in 1959 and continued working for Drum, the South African magazine, recording the spirit of the decade and the lives of London's growing African diaspora. His career runs across six decades and two continents. The touring retrospective Accra/London opened at the Serpentine in London in 2021 and travelled to MASI Lugano in 2022 and the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2023.
He moved to London in 1959 and continued working for Drum, the South African magazine, recording the spirit of the decade and the lives of London's growing African diaspora. His career runs across six decades and two continents. The touring retrospective Accra/London opened at the Serpentine in London in 2021 and travelled to MASI Lugano in 2022 and the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2023.
- Serpentine Galleries — James Barnor: Accra/London, a retrospective
- The Art Newspaper — James Barnor's photographs capture the rapidly changing societies of Ghana and the UK
- Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière — James Barnor
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