3 February
–
23 April 2006
Section
3: Gender, Race and SocietyVanley Burke b. 1951
The Boy with the Flag c.1970-79
© Vanley Burke Archive, Birmingham Central Library
Burke arrived in Birmingham from Jamaica in 1965 and has spent four decades photographing the black community of Birmingham's Handsworth district. His work constitutes a sustained project to record the history and diversity of his community. He describes his own work as 'capturing the personal, social and economic life of black people as they arrived, settled and became established in British society.' Burke's memorable images provide one of the first intimate, insider's portraits – as opposed to a sociological study – of a settled Black British community and its way of life in photography.