Back in the Day:
The Autograph Archive x Yardie

To celebrate the upcoming release of Idris Elba’s directorial debut YARDIE, Autograph is working with STUDIOCANAL to launch a free photographic exhibition at Hackney Picturehouse.

This display features twenty-five works from Autograph’s archive, a unique collection of photographs addressing critical politics of race and representation. The photographs - selected by Renée Mussai, Senior Curator and Mark Sealy, Director of Autograph - were produced by a diverse constituency of photographers from different cultural backgrounds who documented Britain’s Black communities in London during the 1970s and early 1980s.

YARDIE is in cinemas August 31st.

Adapted from the bestselling novel by Victor Headley, Yardie is a bold and exhilarating debut feature from Idris Elba.

Set in 1970s Kingston, Jamaica and 1980s Hackney, YARDIE centres on the life of a young Jamaican man named D (Aml Ameen). After his older brother is murdered, D is taken under the wing of crime lord and music producer, King Fox. But when a turf war escalates in Kingston, King Fox dispatches D to London, where he reconnects with his childhood sweetheart, Yvonne (Shantol Jackson) and hooks up with a soundclash crew. Before he can be convinced to abandon his life of crime, he encounters the man who shot his brother and embarks on an explosive quest for retribution, which brings him into conflict with London gangster Rico (Stephen Graham).‎

Artists in The Autograph Archive x Yardie exhibition include: Bandele ‘Tex’ Ajetunmobi, Raphael Albert, Armet Francis, Colin Jones, Neil Kenlock, Dennis Morris, Charlie Philips, Syd Shelton. Music journalist Lloyd Bradley has written an introduction to the exhibition.