With a practice spanning six decades and two continents, ranging from street to studio and fashion to documentary, Ghanaian photographer James Barnor (born 1929) is now recognized as a pivotal figure in the history of photography. Moving between Accra and London throughout his life, Barnor's photographic portraits visibly map societies in transition: Ghana gaining independence from Britain, and London embracing the freedoms of the swinging sixties. He has said, "I was lucky to be alive when things were happening . . . when Ghana was going to be independent and Ghana became independent, and when I came to England the Beatles were around. Things were happening in the sixties, so I call myself Lucky Jim."
Barnor's photographs have been described as "slices of history, documenting race and modernity in the post-colonial world," and he has been the subject of several major retrospectives over the last fifteen years. A concise survey in the Photofile series, James Barnor is the perfect overview of his multifaceted work.