Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s-1990s

Interesting exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum exploring the work of black British photographers and images of black Britain.

I found the show a bit thin and there is actually more information about the photographers on the website. It would have benefited from a bit more commentary about the pictures. I did however like the fact that they were there to be viewed as images not as a history of black Britain although they were hung chronologically.

My favourites were the pictures from the 70s with the wonderful retro hair and shoes. I overheard  two ladies going round reminiscing about their platform soles and their mother’s reaction to them. It’s always lovely to hear people engaging with the images. I also liked the pictures of headdresses and hair styles by J.D. ’Okhai Ojeikere which were wonderfully textural. The headdresses, pictured from above, looked like Renaissance drapery studies.

I was amused to see Yinka Shonibare’s “Diary of a Victorian Dandy” again and I have seen it recently in a reactions to Victoriana exhibition and one on Hogarth! It seems to fit into so many categories.

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