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Past Touring Exhibition
Curated by Renée Mussai
MAC Birmingham
Cannon Hill Park
Birmingham B12 9QH, UK
The first major solo exhibition of photographs by the late Raphael Albert – cultural promoter, entrepreneur and photographer.
For more than three decades from the late 1960s, Albert organised and documented numerous black British beauty pageants and other cultural events, while creating a portfolio of photographs of aspiring models in his home studio.
His long and successful career as a promoter and chronicler of pageants included the establishment of Miss Black and Beautiful, Miss West Indies in Great Britain, and Miss Grenada.
These competitions celebrated the global ‘Black is Beautiful’ aesthetic of the 1970s in a local west London context: paired with the obligatory bathing costumes and high heels, Albert’s contestants often sported large Afro hairstyles, inventing and reinventing themselves on stage while articulating a particular and multifaceted black femininity as part of a widely contested and ambiguous cultural performance.
Albert’s photographs serve as testament to this profound moment of self-articulation and collective celebration in London’s pan Afro-Caribbean communities, and beyond.
Raphael Albert (1935-2009) was born on the Caribbean island of Grenada. After moving to London in 1953, he studied photography at Ealing Technical College whilst working part-time at Lyons cake factory. Albert soon became a freelance photographer working for black British newspapers such as West Indian World – for whom one of his first assignments was documenting Miss Jamaica – as well as The Gleaner, Caribbean Times and New World.
In 1970 he established the popular Miss Black and Beautiful contest, followed by Miss West Indies in Great Britain, Miss Teenager of the West Indies in Great Britain and Miss Grenada. In addition to his production company Albert Promotions, he also founded his own magazine Charisma in 1984, and the associated Albert’s Girl Academy of Modelling.
Albert remained committed to documenting the West Indian communities in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham throughout his life, taking home-studio portrait photographs for local families, and avidly documenting weddings, christenings, and other social events.
In 2007 Albert co-organised a Black History Month display of his and other photographers’ work entitled Miss West Indies in Great Britain: Celebrating 30 Years of Beauty Pageants (1963-1993) at the Hammersmith and Fulham Information Centre. His work is now represented in the national collections of the V&A and TATE Britain.
Original research and preservation of Raphael Albert’s archive was made possible by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2011.
Autograph would like to thank Bayeux Ltd for their ongoing support, especially Steve Vallis and the master printers who produced the modern gelatin silver prints included in this exhibition. Special thanks to Pendragon Frames, Spectrum Photographic, Genesis Imaging,Typographics EDT, Omni Graphics, ADI, Zoë Maxwell, Michael McMillan, Sybil Mclean, Gloria Bedeau, Keri-Luke Campbell, and the volunteers who helped to preserve Raphael Albert’s archive over the years.
Banner image: Raphael Albert, Holly posing at Blythe Road, Hammersmith, London, early 1970s. From the portfolio 'Black Beauty Pageants'. Courtesy of © Raphael Albert/Autograph ABP.
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