From Ghana to London: James Barnor given major retrospective
Lanre Bakare
A Ghanaian-British photographer who captured the African diaspora in 60s London and created black fashion images that inspired a new generation of artists is to have his work displayed on Piccadilly Circus’s big screens as part of a major retrospective.
In 1961, James Barnor took an iconic image of the BBC Africa Service reporter Mike Eghan on the steps of the Eros fountain in Piccadilly, and now more than 50 years later his own work will be beamed out overlooking the same spot during April.
The retrospective at the Serpentine, originally supposed to open in June 2020, marks a spectacular rise for Barnor, 91, who until an expansive show at Autograph in 2010 was largely unknown in the British photography world.