James Barnor, a Ghanaian in Swinging London
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Invited on the stage by the Rencontres d’Arles at the ancient theater, Friday July 8, James Barnor, 93, kept repeating, a smile rising to his ears: ” I was lucky. » He was certainly nicknamed “Lucky Jim”, but it took more than luck for the old Ghanaian photographer to succeed in such a rich and protean career, traced on the walls of the Luma Foundation. A studio photographer in Accra in the 1950s and photojournalist, he then immortalized Swinging London in the 1960s, before returning to Ghana to introduce color photography. “James Barnor not only has a very good memory, but during his life he kept all his documents, emphasizes Matthieu Humery, the curator of the exhibition. His work fitted in perfectly with the Luma Foundation’s living archives project. »
The institution has purchased a portfolio of around a hundred contemporary prints, sixty-six of which are presented in Arles, supplemented by showcases provided: letters, negatives, contact sheets as well as several photo albums, patiently put together by the photographer as a diary, shed light on this extraordinary life, where friendship and work were closely intertwined. A video, where he comments on his images, completes the whole thing. “For James Barnor, good images always have a good story”says Matthieu Humery.
Matthieu Humery, exhibition curator: “His work fitted in perfectly with the living archives project of the Luma Foundation”
His beginnings coincided with the years of his country’s march towards independence – a British colony called the Gold Coast which would gain its autonomy as Ghana in 1957. In the studio he set up in Accra, baptized “Ever Young”, or outside, in a cemetery or in the street, he hangs the lights to create well-felt portraits of loved ones or strangers. Its icon is a baby preening in front of the camera, rearing up somehow on its four limbs.
But James Barnor above all knows how to jump on the bandwagon of the press: when the British newspaper Daily Graphic opens a branch in Accra, he is part of the prefiguration team and becomes one of the very first photoreporters in the country. He then closely followed the political demands of Ghanaians and the struggle of Kwame Nkrumah, the Ghanaian independence leader, father of Pan-Africanism, after his release from prison. He shows it in an interesting and ambiguous photo during a ceremony to celebrate independence in 1957: the Duchess of Kent, representative of the former British colonial power, seems to turn her face away, hiding it behind her fan. James Barnor will also work for Drumthe famous South African anti-apartheid magazine, whose owner, Jim Bailey, became a close friend – they held parties in Accra where the photographer produced portraits with free poses and full of charm.
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