James Barnor

With a practice spanning six decades and two continents, ranging from street to studio and fashion to documentary, Ghanaian photographer James Barnor (b. 1929) is now recognised as a pivotal figure in the history of photography. Moving between Accra and London throughout his life, Barnor's photographic portraits visually map societies in transition: Ghana winning independence from Britain, and London embracing the freedoms of the swinging sixties. He has said: 'I was lucky to be alive when things were happening ... when Ghana was going to be independent and Ghana became independent, and when I came to England the Beatles were around. Things were happening in the sixties, so I call myself Lucky Jim.'
Barnor's photographs have been described as 'slices of history, documenting race and modernity in the post- colonial world', and he has been the subject of a several major retrospectives over the last fifteen years. This concise survey in the Photofile series is the perfect overview of his multifaceted work.