Between Two Worlds: Vanley Burke and Francis Williams

Two portraits created over 280 years apart of two gentlemen scholars, each seemingly caught between two worlds.

Boy with flag, Wilfred in Handsworth Park, photograph, by Vanley Burke, 1970, England. © Paul Winstone

Self portrait, photograph, by Vanley Burke, 2023, Birmingham, England. © Paul Winstone

Jamaicans Francis Williams and Vanley Burke, alongside those they represent, invite reflections on identity, racism and colonial legacies in two distant but related moments in British and Caribbean history. Together they tell stories of an ongoing quest for personhood.

Mr Crouch in his greenhouse, photograph, by Vanley Burke, 2022, Leeds, England. © Paul Winstone

Mrs Walker and her customers at her hairdressers shop, Rookery Road, photograph, by Vanley Burke, 1979, England. © Paul Winstone

Men sitting by the cricket pitch, Handsworth Park Vanley Burke 2019 Birmingham, England © Paul Winstone

VANLEY BURKE

This room presents Vanley Burke, the ‘Godfather of Black British photography’ who is also a collector of everyday things relating to the Black presence in Britain. To many of us of African Caribbean descent, Burke is the custodian of our histories and cultural memories. The items that shaped our lives, from radiograms and hot combs to Redemption hymnals and Bibles, are expressions of Britishness and Caribbeanness. Presented alongside Burke’s photographs, they create an expanded ‘portrait’ of him and those he represents.

The display is organised around the common spaces of `becoming’ that cut across generations and geographies, reflecting Jamaica-born cultural theorist Stuart Hall’s assertion that cultural identity is a process of `becoming’.

Photos by Paul Winstone