[ad_1]
INine years ago this weekend, Liz Johnson Artur impromptuously photographed three teenage girls with a red balloon at the annual summer carnival in Burgess Park, South London. "It was my local park at the time, close to my studio, so I was mingling, taking pictures of the event," she says.
Johnson Artur has always been committed to taking candid pictures like this one around the world as part of a project to document the life of the African diaspora. Born in Bulgaria in 1964 to a Russian mother and a Ghanaian father, she moved to London at the age of 20 to follow a master's degree at the Royal College of Art. She then toured the world as an official photographer, including for Lady Gaga, MIA and Amy. Winemaker's house. Yet she "had this desire to record normal black lives and culture, which I did not see represented in the mainstream."
So she was retiring from her work, at home and out, to take pictures of ordinary blacks – at weddings, in parks, in clubs, at church, at the hairdresser's – "people quite normal, living everyday moments.
Johnson Artur, which runs exclusively on film, has created an extraordinary collection of images that she calls the black balloon archives. The title refers to a 1970 song by Syl Johnson that describes a black balloon that "dances" in the sky. That's how she imagines her own movement when she takes pictures. "I like getting closer to me when I take pictures," she says of her approach. "I do not like stealing images. I take my time; I look at people and they look at me. I check them and they check me. I like this connection time: it's something you can keep. "
Johnson Artur's images can now be seen in his first solo exhibition in the UK, focusing on black Londoners.
• Liz Johnson Artur: If you know the beginning, the end is not a problem is at South London Gallery until that September 1st
Source link
