Wikipedia

Armet Francis

Armet Francis (born 29 January 1945)[1] is a Jamaican-born photographer and publisher who has lived in London since the 1950s.[2] 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.[3]

Armet Francis
Born (1945-01-29) 29 January 1945 (age 79)
St Elizabeth, Jamaica
NationalityBritish
OccupationPhotographer
Years active1969–present
Known forCo-founder of Autograph ABP
Notable workThe Black Triangle
Roots to Reckoning

He has exhibited worldwide and his work is in collections including those of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Museum of London. One of his best known photographs is 1964's "Self Portrait in Mirror".[4]

Biography

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Armet Francis was born in Saint Elizabeth Parish, in rural Jamaica, in 1945. He was left in the care of his grandparents at the age of three when his parents moved to London, England, where Francis joined them seven years later in 1955.[2] Interviewed for the British Library's Oral History of British Photography, Francis spoke of growing up as the only black child in a school in London Docklands.[5] 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 a freelance photographer for fashion magazines and advertising campaigns.[6]

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."[7] Following his participation at Festac '77 (the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture)[8] 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 in London when The Black Triangle series was exhibited there in 1983.[2] He published a book also entitled The Black Triangle the following year, and Children of the Black Triangle was produced four years later. He was a contributing photographer in the survey issue of Ten.8 vol. 2, no. 3, 1992, titled Critical Decade: Black British Photography in the 80s.[9]

In 1988, Francis was a co-founder of the Association of Black Photographers (now Autograph ABP).[2] He was the official photographer for Africa '05, a major celebration of African arts held throughout 2005 in the UK.[10][11] Francis was one of three pioneering Jamaican-born photographers – the others being Charlie Phillips and Neil Kenlock – whose work was showcased in the 2005/2006 exhibition Roots to Reckoning at the Museum of London,[10][12] which in 2009 with the assistance of Art Fund acquired the "Roots to Reckoning archive", comprising 90 photographs of London's black community from the 1960s to the 1980s.[6][13]

The British Library conducted an interview (C459/214) with Francis in 2013 for its Oral History of British Photography collection.[1]

Photographs by Francis featured prominently in Staying Power, the collaborative project mounted in 2015 by the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and the Black Cultural Archives.[14][15][16] "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,[17] 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."[18]

In February 2022, Francis was named in CasildART's list of the top six Black British photographers, alongside Charlie Phillips, James Barnor, Neil Kenlock, Pogus Caesar and Vanley Burke.[19]

Exhibitions

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Solo exhibitions

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Group exhibitions

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Bibliography

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Books

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  • The Black Triangle: The People of the African Diaspora. Seed, 1985. ISBN 978-0951059814
  • Children of the Black Triangle. Africa World, 1989. ISBN 978-0865431300

Children's books

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Publications with contributions by Francis

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  • Roots to Reckoning – photos by Armet Francis, Neil Kenlock, Charlie Phillips. Seed, 2005. Exhibition catalogue with introduction by Mike Phillips. ISBN 0-95105-988-2

Collections

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Works by Francis are held in the following public collections:

References

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  1. ^ a b "Photography | Francis, Armet (1 of 6) Oral History of British Photography", The British Library, 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Armet Francis biography". Victoria & Albert Museum. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ "Best photographs from the V&A collection, in pictures", The Daily Telegraph, 5 April 2017.
  5. ^ "Oral history at the British Library: what else has been happening?", National Life Stories: Review and Accounts 2013/2014, British Library, p. 7.
  6. ^ a b c "Important Afro-Caribbean photographic archive acquired for Museum of London with Art Fund help". Art Fund. 1 October 2009. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  7. ^ "Biographies: Photo Evolution 2000", Artslink.co.za, 18 August 2000.
  8. ^ "Festac '77 – Catalogue relating to an exhibition, 1977", Diaspora Artists.
  9. ^ "Critical Decade: Black British Photography in the 80s". new.diaspora-artists.net.
  10. ^ a b c Molara Wood, "roots to reckoning", 26 February 2006.
  11. ^ Siobhan Silbert, "Past in photos" Archived 30 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Hackney Today, Issue 179, 10 March 2008, p. 21.
  12. ^ a b Kate Smith, "Black History Month 2005 – From Roots To Reckoning In Photos", Culture24, 30 September 2005.
  13. ^ Qiana Mestrich, "Afro-Caribbeans in UK: Roots to Reckoning Photo Archive at the Museum of London", Dodge & Burn, 17 June 2014.
  14. ^ a b "Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience, 1950s–1990s", BBC, 16 February 2015.
  15. ^ a b Sean O'Hagan, "Black, British and proud: 50 years of struggle and triumph", The Guardian, 16 February 2015.
  16. ^ "Staying Power", Art Fund.
  17. ^ "Insider's Guide: Staying Power, V&A", Culture Whisper,
  18. ^ Brennavan Sritharan, "Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s–1990s – Review", British Journal of Photography, 9 April 2015.
  19. ^ "Top Six Black British Photographers You Should Know". CasildART. 7 February 2022. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  20. ^ "Reflections of the Black Experience – 10 Black Photographers". Brixton 50. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  21. ^ "Armet Francis artist". Ben Uri Research Unit. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  22. ^ "Francis, Armet". aavad.com African American Visual Artists Database. Archived from the original on 28 September 2015.
  23. ^ "Get Up, Stand Up Now: Generations of Black Creative Pioneers". Somerset House. 31 January 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  24. ^ Cumming, Laura (5 December 2021). "Life Between Islands review – a mind-altering portrait of British Caribbean life through art". theguardian.com. The Guardian. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
  25. ^ "Your Search Results". collections.vam.ac.uk. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  26. ^ "Photographic Brilliance". Aesthetica Magazine. 13 June 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
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