Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1929 Accra, Gold Coast (now Ghana)

Year of Migration to the UK: 1959

Other name/s: Frederick Seton James Barnor

Biography

Photographer James Barnor was born on 6 June 1929 in Accra, Gold Coast (now Ghana), into a family of photographers. Aged 17, he was given his first camera, a Kodak Brownie 127, made of plastic. In 1947 he was apprenticed with his cousin, before establishing Ever Young, his first studio, in 1953. His clients came from traditional middle-class families and the working class, including rural migrants arriving in the city for the first time. Barnor also captured sitters newly entering the urban professions such as nursing, teaching or the police. In 1957 Ghana was the first nation in Sub-Saharan Africa gaining independence from the British Empire and his portraits from the early 1950s immortalised a nation striving for modernity and independence. Barnor’s iconic photograph of young policewoman Selina Opong (1954, V&A) illustrated the sense of civic pride and the new ambitions of a young woman entering an urban profession as Ghana looked to independence. Barnor was the first staff photographer of the Daily Graphic newspaper, documenting key events and figures in the leadup to Ghana’s independence. His high-profile sitters included Kwame Nkrumah, the nation's first leader following independence in 1957; Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent; and American Vice-President Richard Nixon, among many others.

Barnor moved to England in 1959, at the suggestion of his friend and mentor, A. Q. A. Archampong, who had been his class teacher and had moved there to study. In his first letter to Barnor, he wrote: ‘London is the place for you’ (Serpentine Gallery). Barnor initially found lodgings in Peckham, south London and became friends with Dennis Kemp, a lecturer in visual education working for the Kodak Lecture Service, whom Barnor later described as ‘the influence that changed my life’ (Tate interview). Kemp was researching Africa in preparation for a trip to document forthcoming Nigerian independence celebrations and the two toured schools across the country where Kemp gave lectures using his archive of images. Barnor joined Kemp on his trip to Nigeria in October 1960, and also lodged at his Holborn flat, eventually receiving a grant from the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Board to support his training. In the same year, Barnor moved to Kent, to study colour photography at the Colour Processing Laboratories (CPL) in Edenbridge, the UK’s leading lab at the time. He then enrolled in a three-year course at Medway College of Art in Rochester, where he learned the technical aspects of colour photography, while continuing to work during the holidays at CPL. Upon graduation Barnor was hired as a technician at the college before he began working as a photographer in the design section of the Centre for Educational Television Overseas (CETO). He was offered fulltime employment as a colour printer by CPL in 1968.

Barnor also contributed documentary and fashion photographs to the South African magazine Drum. Based in Johannesburg, in the 1960s Drum spread throughout the African continent, including editions in Kenya and Nigeria, and had London offices on Fleet Street. It became Africa's first black politics and lifestyle magazine and also served as an anti-apartheid platform. Barnor documented the black British experience and his covers for the magazine were instrumental in bringing black models into the mainstream British media. Barnor also documented the visit of American boxing legend Muhammad Ali to London in 1966 for Drum, showing Ali training before a fight (Muhammad Ali Training, Earl’s Court, London 1966, Tate Collection). Other portraits featured public figures, such as Ghanaian broadcaster Mike Eghan, who hosted a talk show for the BBC World Service (Mike Eghan at BBC Studios, London 1967 and Mike Eghan at Piccadilly Circus, London 1967 , V&A), while his portraits of ‘cover girls’ captured the mood of London’s ‘swinging Sixties’, as well as the aspiration of Black immigrants to integrate into British society. Barnor’s photographs also included unnamed subjects, such the two smartly-dressed women in Wedding Guests, London 1960s (Tate Collection).

Barnor returned to Accra in 1970 with the desire to share the experience and skills he acquired while working with colour photography in England. He worked for Sick-Hagemayer to set up the first colour-processing laboratory in the country, where he worked until 1973 before establishing his own studio. In the late 1970s, Barnor worked as a photographer for the United States Information Service in Ghana (1977–82) and then as a government photographer under President Jerry John Rawlings at Osu Castle (1983–87). Prior to this, he had established his second studio, Studio X23 in 1973. Following Ghana’s economic collapse in the mid 1980s, Barnor settled permanently in England in 1994, exhibiting in important group and solo exhibitions, including Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s-1990s, V&A (2015) and James Barnor: Accra/London, Serpentine Gallery, London (2021). James Barnor now lives in West London and his work is represented in UK public collections, including the Tate, V&A and Government Art Collection.

Related books

'La vie selon James Barnor', in M.-A. Yemsi (ed.), Afrotopia: Biennale Africaine de la Photographie (Paris: Éditions Dilecta, 2017), pp. 194-213 and 318
R. Mussai, 'James Barnor: Ever Young, Never Sleep', Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Nos. 38-39, 2016, pp. 152-161
R. Mussai (ed.), James Barnor, Ever Young (Paris: Clementine de la Féronnière and London: Autograph ABP, 2015)
R. Mussai, 'Quietly Rebellious, Distinctly Diasporic: The Photography of James Barnor ', in M. Shatanawi and W. Modest (eds.), The Sixties: A Worldwide Happening (Amsterdam: Tropenmuseum, 2015), pp. 96-107
Ever Young: James Barnor (London: Autograph ABP, 2010)
H. Delaney and S. Barker (eds.), Another London. International Photographers Capture City Life 1930-1980 (London: Tate Publishing, 2010)

Public collections

Related organisations

Centre for Educational Television Overseas (CETO) (employee)
Colour Processing Laboratories (CPL) (trainee; colour printer)
Daily Graphic newspaper, Ghana (photographer)
Drum magazine, South Africa (photographer)
Medway College of Art (currently Kent Institute of Art and Design) (trainee)

Selected exhibitions

James Barnor: Accra/London, Serpentine Gallery, London (2021)
Daniele Tamagni and James Barnor, October Gallery, London (2016)
Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s-1990s, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2015)
James Barnor: Ever Young, Impressions Gallery, Bradford, England (2013)
James Barnor: Ever Young, Autograph Gallery, London (2010)
Mr Barnor's Independence Diaries, Black Cultural Archives, London (2007)
Acton Arts Forum, Acton Arts Festival, London (2004)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [James Barnor]