James Barnor

Who is James Barnor?

James Barnor is a pioneering Ghanaian photographer whose career spans six decades, although for most of his career his work was not widely known. In his street and studio photography he represents societies in transition: Ghana moving toward Independence, and London becoming a multicultural metropolis. He is credited with introducing colour processing to Ghana. Appreciation of octogenarian Barnor's work as a studio portraitist, photojournalist and Black lifestyle photographer has been heightened since 2010 as a result of a series of exhibitions of his work in the UK, the USA, France and South Africa. His photographs have been collated by the London-based charity Autograph ABP during a four-year project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and in 2011 became part of the new Archive and Research Centre for Culturally Diverse Photography.