Stories: Pictures from the Archive

Published in parallel with the exhibition James Barnor, the Portfolio: 100 photographs (1949-1983), presented in 2022 at the LUMA Foundation as part of the Rencontres d’Arles festival, the book offers a kaleidoscopic overview of the Ghanaian photographer’s oeuvre. From Accra to London and back, from the end of the colonial era to the early 1980s, from studio portraits to press commissions, the reader gains an insight into the process behind Barnor’s best-known images while exploring more personal aspects of this exceptional archive. This exhibition is the first retrospective in France devoted to a photographer who continues, as he approaches the age of 93, to inspire generations of contemporary artists, and whose work is now included in the most prestigious international collections.

The book extensively covers not only Barnor's greatest works, but also gives insight into his process, his impact on the wider photographic industry across the decades and discusses the legacy of Barnor's practice.

James Barnor (born 1929) opened his first photography studio in Accra, Ghana, in 1949. He also worked for the press, capturing in photos the movement that led to his country’s independence in 1957. Living in the United Kingdom from 1959 to 1969, he documented the experience of the diaspora in the “Swinging London” of the sixties. He branched out to colour photography, and returned to Ghana in 1970 to cultivate the use of the technique. In 2021 he was honoured with a large-scale retrospective at the Serpentine Gallery in London.