In parallel with the exhibition James Barnor: Stories. Pictures from the Archive (1947-1987), presented in 2022 at the LUMA Foundation as part of the Rencontres d’Arles festival, the book offers a kaleidoscopic overview of the Ghanaian photographer’s oeuvre. From Accra to London and back, from the end of the colonial era to the early 1980s, from studio portraits to press commissions, the reader gains an insight into the process behind Barnor’s best-known images while exploring more personal aspects of this exceptional archive.

This exhibition is the first retrospective in France devoted to a photographer who continues, as he approaches the age of 96, to inspire generations of contemporary artists, and whose work is now included in the most prestigious international collections.  

James Barnor (born 1929) opened his first photography studio in Accra, Ghana, in 1949. He also worked for the press, documenting through his photographs the movement that led to the country’s independence in 1957. Living in the United Kingdom from 1959 to 1969, he documented the experience of the diaspora in the “Swinging London” of the sixties. He branched out to color photography, and returned to Ghana in 1970 to cultivate the use of the technique. In 2021 he was honored with a large-scale retrospective at the Serpentine Gallery in London.  

Texts by : Damarice Amao, Matthieu Humery, Margaux Lavernhe, Bianca Manu, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Isabella Seniuta

Photographs by : James Barnor, Delali Cofie, Liz Johnson Artur, Lebohang Kganye, Tyler Mitchell, Silvia Rosi, Stephen Tayo