James Barnor

Born in Ghana in 1929, James Barnor opened his renowned Ever Young studio in Accra, where he immortalized a nation at the moment of its independence. He was one of the first photojournalists to collaborate with The Daily Graphic, a newspaper published in Ghana by London’s Daily Mirror Group.

In 1959, two years after Ghana’s independence, Barnor moved to London to deepen his technical knowledge of the medium. He discovered colour photography at the Medway College of Art and his pictures were published on the front page of Drum, an important magazine founded in South Africa in 1951 and symbol of the anti-apartheid movement. He eloquently captured the spirit of Swinging London and the experiences of the African diaspora in the British capital.

In the late 1960s, he was recruited by Agfa-Gevaert and returned to Ghana to set up the country’s first colour laboratory. He stayed there for the next twenty years, working in his new Studio X23 as a freelance photographer and for state agencies in Accra. Today, Barnor lives in the United Kingdom and devotes most of his time to his work, in a spirit of transmission.

Barnor’s work has recently given rise to numerous exhibitions and publications, including a touring retrospective curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, shown at the Serpentine in London in 2021, MASI Lugano, Switzerland, in 2022 and the Detroit Institute of Art, MI, USA in 2023. James Barnor: Stories, Pictures from the Archive (1947-1987), curated by Matthieu Humery, opened at LUMA Arles, France in 2022, and was marked by the launch of the James Barnor Prize, dedicated to African photographers. In October 2023, James Barnor, Studio of Life opened at FOMU Antwerp, in Belgium.

Coinciding with the photographer’s 95th birthday, the James Barnor 95 Festival opened in Accra and Tamale in May 2024, with a month-long programme celebrating Barnor’s legacy and Ghana’s cultural art scene.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2024 James Barnor 95 Festival (multiple venues) Dikan Library, Accra; Nuku Studio, Tamale; Red Clay & SCCA, Tamale; Institute Museum of Ghana, Accra; Ghana Club, Accra; outdoor exhibition in Jamestown, Accra (29.05.2024 - ongoing)

2023 James Barnor, Studio of Life, FOMU, Antwerp, BE

2022-23 James Barnor, Stories: Pictures from the Archive (1947-1987), LUMA Foundation, Arles, FR

Ever Young, Barakat Contemporary, Seoul, KR

2021 James Barnor - The Roadmaker, Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière, Paris, FR

2021-23 James Barnor, Accra/London - A Retrospective, Serpentine North Gallery, London, UK

Museo d’Arte della Svizzera Italiana (MASI), Lugano, Switzerland (13.03.2022 - 31.07.2022)

Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), Detroit, MI, USA (28.05.2023 - 01.10.2023)
2021 James Barnor: Ghanaian Modernist, Bristol Photo Festival, City Museum of Bristol, UK
2019 James Barnor - A retrospective, Nubuke Foundation, Accra, GH
2019 Paris-Londres, Music Migrations (1962-1989), (group exhibition) Musée de la Porte Dorée, Paris, FR 2017 Ever Young, Musée du quai Branly, Paris, FR
2017-22 La Vie selon James Barnor/Life According to James Barnor - Touring exhibition

11ème Rencontres de Bamako, Bamako, Mali.
Mupho, Musée de la Photographie, Saint Louis, Sénégal (2018); Gallery 1957, Accra, Ghana (2018); IF Johannesburg, South Africa (2020); CCF Windhoek, Namibie (2021), AF Lusaka, Zambia (2022) To be continued in AF Gaborone, Botswana; AF Durban; AF Port-Elizabeth; AF Potchefstroom;

2012 Another London (group exhibition), Tate Modern, London, UK
2010 Ever Young: James Barnor (Touring exhibition) Autograph ABP, Rivington Place, London, UK

W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University, Boston, (MA) USA (2010)
South African National Gallery, Capetown (2012); Impressions Gallery, York, UK (2013); Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière, Paris (2015); BAND Gallery, Toronto, CA (2016)

2007 Mr Barnor’s Independence Diaries, Black Cultural Archives, London, UK