Isn’t it good when you stumble across something quite by chance? Tucked away on a Shoreditch backstreet is Ever Young a collection of photographs by James Barnor. Barnor took portraits in his studio in Jamestown, Ghana before moving to England in 1959. His earlier photographs of local folk and passing dignitaries are interesting enough but what caught my eye (unsurprisingly) were the Swinging London shots he took for Drum magazine. All the usual backdrops are present and correct: sports cars, bright red postboxes, pigeons in Trafalgar Square, but the use of black models adds another dimension, highlighting London just before it began its rapid (and welcome) shift into the multicultural metropolis it is today, as the 1966 picture of Erlin Ibreck above neatly demonstrates.
Ever Young: James Barnor is at Autograph ABP, Rivington Place, Shoreditch, London EC2 until 27 November 2010, admission free.
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