Image courtesy of the Autograph
Ajamu’s work as an artist and archivist has been to celebrate black queer bodies, the erotic sense, and pleasure as activism. For over 30 years, he has been at the forefront of genderqueer photography in the United Kingdom, challenging dominant views about masculinity, gender, sexuality, and the representation of black LGBTQ+ persons.
Ajamu’s evocative photographs depict his own and others’ lives and experiences. The exhibition, Ajamu: The Patron Saint of Darkrooms, highlights the community that has built an environment that embraces the politics of pleasure, from charged self-portraits to sensitive pictures of lovers, vibrant photos of friends to objects that his sitters utilize.
The exhibition, “Ajamu: The Patron Saint of Darkrooms,” is currently on view at Autograph Gallery in London till 2 September 2023.
Since the 1980s, Ajamu has tried to liberate depictions of the black queer body through the use of sensuality and desire as a creative technique. He is best known for his fine art photography which explores same-sex desire, and the Black male body.
“I want to pose the imagination, fiction and play in opposition to the constant framing our black queer bodies and nuanced lived experiences from within a sociological framework,'” Ajamu says.
Having been selected for the 2023 Autograph / Light Work artist residency, a selection of commissioned works by the artist is on view for the first time. His new works, Ecce Homo (2023), as well as his acclaimed series, Black Circus Master (1997) and Black Bodyscapes (1994), are part of the display in the gallery.
Ajamu is the co-founder of rukus! Federation and the rukus! Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer + Archive and one of a few leading specialists on Black British LGBTQ+ history, heritage, and cultural memory in the UK.
His works have been shown in exhibitions in museums, galleries, and alternative spaces across globally since the 1990s, his recent solo exhibitions include Archival Senoria at Cubitt Gallery in 2021. As well as included in several thematic groups Very Private? at Charleston House, 2022; Fashioning Masculinities, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2022; Kiss My Genders, Hayward Gallery, 2019; Get Up, Stand Up Now, Somerset House, 2019; On our Backs: The Revolution Art of Queer Sex Work, Leslie Lohman Museum, 2019. His works are currently on show as part of the group exhibition A Hard Man is Good to Find! at The Photographers’ Gallery, London. Ajamu’s works are held in collections including Tate, London; Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow; Autograph, London; Neuberger Museum of Art, New York amongst others. His second monograph AJAMU: ARCHIVE was published in 2021.
