Armet Francis
| Armet Francis | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1945 St Elizabeth, Jamaica |
| Years active | 1969–present |
| Known for |
The Black Triangle Roots to Reckoning |
Armet Francis (born in 1945) is a Jamaican-born photographer and publisher who lives in London.[1] He has been documenting and chronicling the lives of people of the African diaspora for more than 40 years and his assignments have included work for The Times Magazine, The Sunday Times Supplement, BBC and Channel 4.[2] He has exhibited worldwide and his work is in collections including those of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Museum of London.[3]
Biography
Armet Francis was born in St Elizabeth, in rural Jamaica. He was left in the care of his grandparents at the age of three when his parents moved to London, UK, where Francis joined them seven years later in 1955.[3][4] After leaving school at 14, he worked for an engineering firm in Bromley, before finding a job as an assistant in a West End photographic studio, and going on to forge a career as freelance photographer for fashion magazines and advertising campaigns.[3]
He has said: "In 1969 I embarked on a lifetime project.... I was living and working in the first world, materially that is, but becoming more aware of inequalities to the third world, to be more specific the Black World. As a Black photographer I started to realise I had no social documentary images in my work.... I went back [to Jamaica] in 1969.... I had been away 14 years, it would take another 14 years to make sense of this project."[5] Following his participation at Festac '77 (the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture)[6] in Lagos, Nigeria, he became devoted to photographing the people of the African diaspora.
He became the first Black photographer to have a solo exhibition at The Photographers' Gallery when The Black Triangle series was exhibited there in 1983.[1] He published a book also entitled The Black Triangle the following year, and Children of the Black Triangle was produced four years later.[7]
In 1988 Francis was a co-founder of Autograph Association of Black Photographers.[1] He was the official photographer for Africa '05, a major celebration of African arts held throughout 2005 in the UK.[8][9] Francis was one of three pioneering Jamaican-born photographers — the others being Charlie Phillips and Neil Kenlock — whose work was showcased in the 2005–06 exhibition Roots to Reckoning at the Museum of London,[8] which in 2009 with the assistance of The Art Fund acquired the "Roots to Reckoning archive", comprising 90 photographs of London's black community from the 1960s to '80s.[3][10]
Photographs by Francis featured prominently in Staying Power, the collaborative project mounted in 2015 by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Black Cultural Archives.[11][4] "The arresting first image in the V&A museum is Jamaican photographer Armet Francis’s Self-portrait in Mirror (1964), a curiously intimate and honest image showing Armet setting up his shot directly in front of a mirror," noted the reviewer for Culture Whisper,[12] while Brennavan Sritharan commented in the British Journal of Photography: "Self-portraiture is something of a sub-theme, with Armet Francis’ tender yet assertive self-portrait leading the exhibit."[13]
Selected exhibitions
- 1983: The Black Triangle: People of the African Diaspora at The Photographers' Gallery, London.
- 1986: Reflections of the Black Experience: 10 Black Photographers at Brixton Art Gallery, London.
- 1997: Transforming the Crown: African, Asian & Caribbean artists in Britain, 1966-1996 at Caribbean Cultural Center, Studio Museum in Harlem, and Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York.[14]
- 2005-06: Roots to Reckoning, Photographs by Charlie Phillips, Neil Kenlock and Armet Francis at the Museum of London, London.
- 2015: Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience, 1950s – 1990s at the Black Cultural Archives and Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Publications
- 1985: The Black Triangle: The People of the African Diaspora. Seed Publications. ISBN 978-0951059814
- 1989: Children of the Black Triangle. Africa World Press. ISBN 978-0865431300
- 2005: Roots to Reckoning – photos by Armet Francis, Neil Kenlock, Charlie Phillips. Seed Publications. Exhibition catalogue with introduction by Mike Phillips. ISBN 0-95105-988-2
Children's books
- 1990: Counting in Rhymes. Seed Publications. ISBN 9780951059845
- 1990: Carnival Time. Seed Publications. ISBN 9780951059852
References
- 1 2 3 "Armet Francis biography". Victoria & Albert Museum. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
- ↑ Mia Morris and Maureen Roberts, "It is our Black History Month - Passing the Baton on" Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine., Black History Month.
- 1 2 3 4 "Important Afro-Caribbean photographic archive acquired for Museum of London with Art Fund help". artfund.org. October 2009. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
- 1 2 Sean O'Hagan, "Black, British and proud: 50 years of struggle and triumph", The Guardian, 16 February 2015.
- ↑ "Biographies: Photo Evolution 2000", Artslink.co.za, 18 August 2000.
- ↑ "Festac '77 — Catalogue relating to an exhibition, 1977", Diaspora Artists.
- ↑ Armet Francis author page at Amazon.
- 1 2 Molara Wood, "roots to reckoning", 26 February 2006.
- ↑ Siobhan Silbert, "Past in photos", Hackney Today, Issue 179, 10 March 2008, p. 21.
- ↑ Qiana Mestrich, "Afro-Caribbeans in UK: Roots to Reckoning Photo Archive at the Museum of London", Dodge & Burn, 17 June 2014.
- ↑ "Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience, 1950s-1990s", BBC, 16 February 2015.
- ↑ "INSIDER’S GUIDE: Staying Power, V&A", Culture Whisper,
- ↑ Brennavan Sritharan, "Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s-1990s – Review", British Journal of Photography, 9 April 2015.
- ↑ "Francis, Armet". aavad.com African American Visual Artists Database.
External links
- "Armet Francis", V & A.