Flat share: Vanley Burke recreates home in gallery

At Home with Vanley Burke presents the photographer’s striking black and white photographs alongside his extensive collection of artefacts, celebrating a heritage rich in culture yet entangled with empire and slavery.

Images of political gatherings, family portraits and street scenes in Birmingham’s African and Caribbean communities sit alongside objects ranging from barbaric metal shackles to ornamental souvenirs, designed to simultaneously evoke feelings of hope, fear, alienation and festivity.

Burke has experienced the struggles of black immigrants to Britain first-hand. Born in 1951, he moved from Jamaica to the UK in 1965, armed with a camera given by his parents on his tenth birthday.

He proceeded to scrupulously document everyday life in Birmingham, providing an invaluable insight into black culture at a time when it faced constant scrutiny.

The 60s were marked by struggles with racism, inflamed in 1968 by Enoch Powell’s controversial Rivers of Blood speech, delivered in Birmingham. Burke was concerned by the negative portrayal of black people in the press, stating that "like all African Caribbean people living in Britain today, my presence here is inextricably linked to a long history of exploitation".

Burke’s enormous photographic archive, combined with his enthusiasm for collecting, provides a wealth of material celebrating Britain’s diversity. And he is critical of history’s predominantly white accounts that celebrate abolition while denying the black perspective its voice.

Even the practice of documentary photography has historically been used for ethnographic purposes, so Burke’s archive reclaims it as a narrative tool to portray community life and oppression. He asserts: "It’s important that we collect lest we forget, and it’s important that we collect lest we repeat."

At Home with Vanley Burke is at Ikon, Birmingham, from 22 July to 27 September 2015.