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James Barnor - The founding father of photography in Ghana
Legendary Ghanaian photographer James Barnor has seen his work reach a new audience in recent years with a series of high-profile exhibitions. Here, FLYafrica shares images he took in Accra in the 1950s, a period in which his pioneering photojournalist style was in step with the country’s continent-leading move to independence. Mark Edwards takes a look back at the 91-year-old’s career that spans six decades and two continents.
1954-56 Emma Christiana Bruce Annan, Drum Party, Chorkor beach, Accra
Courtesy Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière
c. 1955 The Pastor (Oscar Lamptey), Mamprobi, Accra
Courtesy Autograph
c. 1951. Self-portrait with Nkrumah, Roy Ankrah and his wife, Rebecca, Accra
Courtesy Autograph
Can there be a more important figure in the history of Ghanaian photography than James Barnor? He blazed a trail in a career spanning six decades and two cultures in transition, whether it was taking candid shots of life in 1950s Accra in establishing himself as Ghana’s first photojournalist; capturing the impact of the African diaspora on the ‘Swinging Sixties’ in London; or, in returning to Ghana in the 1970s, setting up the country’s first colour processing plant and so ushering in a new age of photography that flaunted the vibrancy of Ghanaian life and fashion.
Despite Barnor’s pioneering achievements, widespread renown has only come to the 91-year-old inhis later years. The new audienceowes much to his collaboration with the UK-based non-profit arts agency Autograph ABP, which has digitally preserved the vast archive of negatives, vintage prints and transparencies Barnor had piled up in his apartment at a West London home for the elderly, where he has lived since 1994. From those more than 32,000 images, Autograph curated the first major retrospective of Barnor’s work at its London gallery in 2010, and selections from the archive have gone on to be exhibited at major galleries across Europe and the US as well as the Kempinski 1957 Gallery and the Nubuke Foundation in Accra just last year.
Chronicle
The body of work provides a fascinating chronicle of pivotal periods in our country’s history as well as tracing the development of photography in West Africa. It also reveals Barnor’s talent behind the lens. Whether Barnor was photographing everyday people on the streets of Accra, early images of luminaries such as Kwame Nkrumah and boxing legend Muhammad Ali or fashion shoots for influential black lifestyle magazine Drum, the results have a warmth and intimacy that speaks of Barnor’s depth of connection with his subjects.
Thanks to the Serpentine Gallery in London, which is showing a retrospective of Barnor’s work, entitled Accra/London, until October 22, FLYafrica is able to share some of the images he took in Ghana in the early 1950s. Here Barnor was the eyes of a country readying itself for independence, taking pictures that captured the pivotal period’s sense of hope, innocence and energy.
Barnor did more than document the times, armed with just a small hand-held camera and buckets of charm he pioneered a photojournalistic approach that allowed him to immerse himself in everyday life and capture it in candid, off-guard moments.
1952. Kwame Nkrumah in his PG (Prison Graduate) cap, kicking a football before the start of an international match at Owusu Memorial Park in Fadama, Accra, 1952
Courtesy Autograph
Early years
At the time, Barnor was as green and unproven as the inchoate country he was taking pictures of. Still in his 20s, he had gained his photographic apprenticeship from his cousin, JP Dodoo before establishing his first studio, Ever Young, in Jamestown. Barnor chose the name because of the deft retouching work he would carry out on his portraits that would take years off the sitters.
What comes across in Barnor’s early monochrome images is an urge to understand and reveal people. The innate sociability of its owner soon made Ever Young one of the most popular meeting places in the city, welcoming a diverse crowd from musicians such as highlife legend ET Mensah to proprietor of The Drum Jim Bailey, who would hold legendary parties there. In an interview for the Serpentine exhibition catalogue, Barnor says: “My studio was at a spot where everything happened in Accra, where young and old people met from various backgrounds, free to talk about everything and anything.”
The studio’s atmosphere of lively conversation and music made it the ideal place for Barnor to capture the mood of a country on the brink of independence. He also loved to leave Ever Young and take his small, handheld camera to the streets of Accra to capture arresting fragments of life in the city. A popular place for his excursions was the bustling Makolamarket, where he could be assured of interesting shots. “For me it was like living in two worlds: there was the careful handling of a sitter in my ‘studio’ with a big camera on a heavy tripod, and then running around town chasing news and sports! If I needed a picture, or a new story, I would rush to the Makola market, where people behave most like themselves.”
c. 1957 Four Nurses (graduates of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital), Ever Young Studio, Accra
Courtesy Autograph
Barnor’s street photography caught the attention of the world’s press when it swarmed to the Gold Coast as independence became imminent.
During this time, he also undertook assignments for the Daily Graphic newspaper, owned by the Mirror Group. His circle of influential friends – among them Kwame Nkrumah, the man who would become the first president of Ghana – gave him enviable access to key events and he established himself as the first photojournalist in the country. He says: “I was the first newspaper photographer in Ghana, and I’m proud of that. Newspaper photography changed people’s lives and it changed journalism in Ghana. I was part of this moment.”
Two years after Ghana’s independence, Barnor left the country for the UK. Basing himself in London, he continued with studio portraiture and street photography assignments for The Drum magazine. Here he continued his pioneering path with his photographs of models of African descent, such as Erlin Ibreck and Marie Hallowi, often making the magazine’s front page – an almost unheard-of achievement at that time. His work was instrumental in capturing the experiences of a vibrant and growing Afro diasporic community for the magazine.
Barnor also used his time in the UK to enhance his photographic skill set. He studied the technical aspects of colour photography on a three-year course at Medway College of Art in Rochester, furthering his knowledge by working at Colour Processing Laboratories (CPL), the UK’s leading lab at the time, during his holidays. An impressed CPL employed him full time in 1968 as a colour printer. Driven by a desire to share the experience and skills he acquired while working with colour photography in the UK, Barnor returned to Ghana in 1970. He managed the first colour-processing laboratory in the country – located in Accra department store Sick-Hagemeyer – until 1973 before establishing his own Studio X23.
c 1952 Portrait of James Barnor in front of his advertising board, Accra
Courtesy Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière
Return to Ghana
Prior to the introduction of these colour film-processing labs in West Africa, photographers had to improvise or send away to get the processing done abroad. Ghanaians love dressing up so the labs, under Barnor’s expertise, proved hugely popular in capturing this riot of colour.
“Colour really changed people’s ideas about photography,” Barnor says. “Kente is Ghanaian woven fabric with many different colours, and people wanted their photographs taken after church or in town wearing this cloth, so the news spread quickly.”
Barnor continued as a portrait photographer at Studio X23 for the next 20 years. In that period he was also employed as photographer by the United States Information Service in Ghana and then as a government photographer under President Jerry John Rawlings at Osu Castle.
The recent retrospectives of his work reveal the restless creativity that powered his long career. With each pioneering step forward he made, he was keen to bring others with him and share his knowledge. It must be satisfying then that the exhibitions have brought him to the attention of a new audience and that his work has been preserved for future generations, Ever Young.
James Barnor
Accra/London – A Retrospective. Serpentine. Opens May 2021. Further info: nadjac@serpentinegalleries.org
