On June 6th, 2024, James Barnor, the most celebrated Ghanaian photographer will be 95 years old.
A press release issued by his managers say, to celebrate this event Uncle James will be travelling back to Ghana. There is a packed programme of events including exhibitions, screenings and concerts to celebrate the most famous photographer on this
momentous occasion.
The James Barnor 95 festival will take place in Ghana from May 29 to June 29, 2024.
The Festival is a celebration of cultural heritage and artistic innovation. While paying homage to the iconic photographer, it also aims for a long-term impact on the Ghanaian arts and culture scene.
Born in Ghana in 1929, James Barnor opened his renowned Ever Young studio in Accra, where he immortalized the nation at the moment of its independence.
He the first photojournalist to collaborate with The Daily Graphic, 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 cover 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.
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 will take place in Ghana from May 2024.
Read full press release here.
