Radia Camille Green
“James Barnor: Accra/London — A Retrospective” opens on May 28 and features over 170 photographs from Barnor’s archives from the 1950s to the 1980s.
The work of Ghanaian photographer James Barnor captures the social and political change in Ghana’s transition from a British colony to an independent nation. More important, however, is the glimpse into everyday life in the country that contrasts with the false narratives surrounding the African continent.
At the age of 94, the Ghanaian photographer is having his first US retrospective at the Detroit Institute of Arts. James Barnor: Accra/London — A Retrospective opens on Sunday 28 May and features more than 170 photographs from Barnor’s archives, taken between the 1950s and 1980s. His work ranges from pioneering magazine covers celebrating African beauty and intimate shots of Muhammad Ali to the arrival of Richard Nixon in Ghana to celebrate the country’s newfound independence.
Barnor began studying portrait photography in 1947 and began working as a photojournalist in 1950. His work documents Ghana before, during and after its journey to independence. His subjects include Kwame Nkrumah, the first president and prime minister of Ghana, who was imprisoned for his activism before becoming a politician.
“My interest was in photographing people who made the news,” Barnor said in a statement to the show. “I have recorded all these things and they are used as history. If no one had photographed them, these moments would have been lost.”
His work spans six decades and includes portraits taken in his studio in Ghana, lifestyle photography and snapshots of the African diaspora. When he finally moved to London, he took pictures for Druma lifestyle magazine that highlights the talents of Africans abroad.
In the exhibition, images of African models, actors and musicians living in London comprise one room, while others show middle-class Ghanaians in everyday life at home. Other portraits show a young man doing yoga and Ghanaian boxer Ginger Nyarku in the 1950s.
Nii O. Quarcoopome, the DIA’s curator and head of Africa, Oceania and Native America, says Metro Times it wants to tell a more diverse story of Africa than is often presented in the media.
!["Naa Jacobson as Ballroom Queen after fashion show" shot by James Barnor in 1955. - Courtesy of the Detroit Institute of Arts](https://media1.metrotimes.com/metrotimes/imager/u/blog/33206289/e2022.46.jpg?cb=1685037291)
!["Naa Jacobson as Ballroom Queen after fashion show" shot by James Barnor in 1955. - Courtesy of the Detroit Institute of Arts](https://media1.metrotimes.com/metrotimes/imager/u/blog/33206289/e2022.46.jpg?cb=1685037291)
Courtesy of the Detroit Institute of Arts
“Naa Jacobson as Ballroom Queen after a fashion show” filmed by James Barnor in 1955.
“The media hasn’t done a very good job of giving Africa its due, especially in terms of image, and Detroit is suffering from the same,” says Quarcoopome. “What I hope this show does is give people a glimpse of what real Africa looks like from the 1950s onwards, because right after the war, we started to see a vibrant, thriving middle class in Ghana. This is not just somebody telling us a story, but it’s being visually recorded, and that’s extremely important for African Americans, African Americans, to see.”
Barnor appears in videos throughout the exhibition, his off-the-cuff humor shining through when he says things like, “If I’ve photographed a legend, that must make me a legend myself,” about his shots of Muhammad Ali .
The retrospective was organized by London’s Serpentine Galleries, which debuted the exhibition in 2021. In conjunction with the exhibition, Detroit music venue Spot Lite is hosting a free afrobeats party and mixer on Wednesday June 7th. The mixer starts at 5:30 p.m. with the dance party following from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.
James Barnor: Accra/London — A Retrospective on display at the Detroit Institute of Arts from May 28 to October 15. Admission is free for residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. For more information, see dia.org.
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