Eclectic Flavour

This exhibition, Eclectic Flavour, bears witness to the ever-evolving and constantly diversifying creative impulses amongst Britain’s Black photographers. Within this exhibition we can see, at first hand, some of the ways in which ‘Black British photography’ has undergone a continual process of pluralisation that brings with it a new resistance to collective or common approaches to issues of identity and the use of the camera.

This statement might, in the first instance, appear unremarkable. After all, in the 1990s we have come to regard identity not as any sort of fixed notion but rather as an elusive state of being defined by its uncertainty and its eclecticism. But as recently as the mid 1980s, little more than a decade ago, much of Black photographic practice in London and across the country resonated with an entirely different set of cultural and political sensibilities. In those dim and distant days a decade ago, Black photographic practice was by and large defined by its attachment to the act and the art of social documentation. Race-based reportage was unquestioned and willingly accepted order of the day.

But that was then and this is now. The photographers selected for this exhibition remind us that Black photography’s visage of common purpose has been splintered into an infinite number of pieces; each piece in turn representing personal narratives, and different approaches to subjects such as history, geography, locality, and identity…

…Within Britain, the children of immigrants, such as Khan have frequently come to be categorised as coming from two worlds – being simultaneously ‘Asian’ and ‘British’. Being pulled by Islam one way and being pulled by secularism another. Khan’s photographs show us that she has no time for such lazy dichotomies, and that her identity is much more complex than that. Much more resolved than that. Much les resolved than that…

… The work of these photographers can in no sense be described as prescriptive. They each invite us – sometimes demand us – to find our own points of entry and to make up our own minds about the work they produce. This exhibition represents a valuable opportunity for Light Work’s audiences to get a sense of the diversity of contemporary British photographic practice.

The full version of the above text written by Eddie Chambers was published in “Eclectic Flavour” Contact Sheet 95: photography by Joy Gregory, Roshini Kempadoo, Addela Khan, Franklyn Rodgers and Yinka Shonibare. [Exhibition held at Robert B. Menschel Photography Gallery - Light Work, Syracuse University, January 15 – March 15 1998]. The publication also featured an ‘in conversation’ piece between Eddie Chambers and Mark Sealy, Director of Autograph, Association of Black Photographers, London, recorded in October 1997. An extract as follows:

 

Mark Sealy, Director, Autograph: It’s October 10, 1997. Eddie, let’s talk about this exhibition for Light Work. We commissioned you to curate this show and I know that you’ve been aware and familiar with a lot of the activity that Autograph has been involved in, but first of all what did you think when you were offered the commission?

 

Eddie Chambers: Well, I was very pleased, in fact I was grateful for the offer of the work because it’s very different from the type of curating I normally do. As you know, my own curating is much more labour-intensive because I have to find the galleries, take care of the publicity, the catalogue, brochure, insurance, and transport. I have to take care of the whole lot and it’s quite a lot of work, especially as I work on my own without any assistance. So it was a good opportunity to work on an exhibition where the curatorial parameters were very clear, that the workload was very clear. I was working with autograph and also working, in a sense, with Light Work. The workload was shared, and frankly it was easier…