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Ajamu's Ecce Homo represents and celebrates black trans men from all walks of life on their own terms
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Chaune King, from the series Ecce Homo [Behold the Man] – Portraits of Black Trans Men, 2023
This image representing actor and model Chaune King is part of the series Ecce Homo [Behold the Man] – Portraits of Black Trans Men. The platinum print was made during the Autograph x Light Work residency in March 2023 and is now a part of Autograph’s collection.
Like other black and queer histories, the presented visual narratives of black trans men tend not to reflect a myriad of experiences and complex, nuanced representations. In the arts and mainstream/popular culture, there remains a problematic and oppressive marginalisation of black trans voices and lived experiences. Against this background, the Ecce Homo series represents and celebrates black trans men from all walks of life on their own terms.
Ajamu is an acclaimed fine art studio-based, darkroom-led photographic artist and archive curator. For more than 30 years he has been at the forefront of genderqueer photography, challenging dominant ideas around masculinity, gender, sexuality and representation of black LGBTQ+ people in the United Kingdom. His work, theoretical provocations, and aesthetics unapologetically celebrate black queer bodies, the erotic, sex, desire, and the politics of pleasure. His black and white images also pose the imagination, fiction, and play in opposition to the constant framing of black queer bodies and nuanced lived experiences within a sociological framework.
Autograph has worked with Ajamu since the early 1990s, including on his 2023 exhibition The Patron Saint of Darkrooms in which the new Ecce Homo series is being exhibited for the first time.
Ajamu (1963, Huddersfield, UK) is a photographic artist, scholar, archive curator and radical sex activist best known for his imagery that challenges dominant ideas around black masculinity, gender, sexuality, and representation of black LGBTQ people in the United Kingdom.
He is the co-founder of rukus! Federation and the rukus! Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer + Archive and one of a few leading specialists on Black British LGBTQ+ history, heritage, and cultural memory in the UK. In 1997, Ajamu was the Autograph x Lightwork artist-in-residence in Syracuse, USA developing a series of self-portraits during his residency. He studied at the Jan van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht, The Netherlands, and is currently an PhD candidate at Royal College of Art, London. In 2022 Ajamu was canonised by The Trans Pennine Traveling Sisters as The Patron Saint of Darkrooms in his hometown Huddersfield and he received an honorary fellowship from the Royal photographic society.
Ajamu’s works have been shown in exhibitions in museums, galleries, and alternatives spaces across globally since the 1990s, his recent solo exhibitions include Archival Senoria at Cubitt Gallery, 2021. As well as included in several thematic group Very Private? at Charleston House, 2022; Fashioning Masculinities, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2022; Kiss My Genders, Hayward Gallery, 2019; Get Up, Stand Up Now, Somerset House, 2019; On our Backs: The Revolution Art of Queer Sex Work, Leslie Lohman Museum, 2019. His works are currently on show as part of the group exhibition A Hard Man is Good to Find! at The Photographers’ Gallery, London. Ajamu’s works are held in collections including Tate, London; Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow; Autograph, London; Neuberger Museum of Art, New York amongst others. His second monograph AJAMU: ARCHIVE was published in 2021.
This photograph is in Autograph's permanent collection of photography, where it has been conserved and digitised
Ecce Homo debuted at Autograph's exhibition Ajamu: The Patron Saint of Darkrooms
Jason Okundaye on the significance of queer erotica in the archives of Black cultural memory
Read blog post | 4 min read
Take a virtual tour of The Patron Saint of Darkrooms, Ajamu's exhibition at Autograph
VR visit
Ajamu was selected for the 2023 Autograph / Light Work artist residency
Read more
A new exhibition, 28 Apr – 2 Sep 2023
Unapologetically celebrating black queer bodies and pleasure as activism
Banner image: Ajamu, Chaune King from the series Ecce Homo [Behold the Man] – Portraits of Black Trans Men, 2023. Courtesy the artist and Autograph, London. © Ajamu.
Other images on page: 1) Ajamu signing prints of Power Drill Heels at Autograph, 2021. Courtesy Renée Mussai. 2) Ajamu: The Patron Saint of Darkrooms exhibition at Autograph. 28 April - 2 September 2023. Curated by Mark Sealy in association with Bindi Vora. Photograph by Kate Elliott. 3) Ajamu, Aura [detail], 1992. © and courtesy Ajamu.
Autograph is a place to see things differently. Since 1988, we have championed photography that explores issues of race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice, sharing how photographs reflect lived experiences and shape our understanding of ourselves and others.
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