Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Photographer known as the godfather of black British photography, documenting Caribbean communities in Birmingham since 1965.
On the island
Eight records
Field recording of Jamaican Revival music
I remember this very much when I came to England, you know, it was a very much talked about record and it linked, you know, the whole Jamaica experience with hair.
Sonny's Letter is a letter being written from a son living in England to his mother in Jamaica about his experience at the hands of police.
Speech to the United Nations in 1963
It's important for me because it tries to challenge the whole notion of racism by major powers... It's still relevant today with all that's happening, you know, around the world. Perhaps more so than it was then.
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free
What is it to be free? What is it to spend a whole day without thinking about race? ... I'd really love to experience that.
I remember during the hard times, you know, when all of this photography documentation and archiving was a big struggle, you know, it helped me through some dark moments.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:36You've said that your aim is not to hold on to the past, but to document the past for future generations. Why is that important to you?
Well, I think as a group of people we need to be in charge of our history. History is a byproduct of life and it will be written whether we participate in the process or not. And I felt as a group of people who are living this history it is important that we get involved in documenting. And as a photographer I felt it was a good way of writing, helping to write this history.
Presenter asks
9:02You were born in St. Thomas, Jamaica, in 1951 – after your mother moved to Britain, you were raised by your maternal grandparents – what was family life like for you?
It was wonderful. All children had a chore. Mine was sweeping the house or the yard, but it was wonderful. Played with friends… Very rural. I describe where I come from as if you get on a aeroplane to the country, the plane doesn't go beyond that point, and you get in a car, and then it comes to the end of the road, then you get on a donkey, and when the donkey can't go anymore, I live just around the corner. So it is very rural, but absolutely beautiful.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
The Encyclopedia of Tropical Plants
I think the Encyclopedia of Tropical Plants, it's how to identify and to grow them and what more would you need on a desert island.
The luxury
I identify it as being a rites of passage as a young man. When you've left school and you're given your own field, you have a machete to deal with the land and a sack which is used to put stuff in, stuff you might harvest. It's a Hessian sack.
The first camera you ever owned was a gift from your mother. Do you remember the Box Brownie? What do you remember about that?
I remember it very well. I remember opening the yellow box. I remember the smell of it. We don't have any technology where you from. All our toys we made ourselves. But this would be in one of the many parcels that were sent back to family in the Caribbean… I received this box brownie camera. As I said, the smell of it, the look of it, and also I was fascinated by the science of it. How did the image get from there to here? And I remember when I eventually had some lessons on how to use the camera, it was keep the sun behind you and don't press the shutter, squeeze it.
Presenter asks
13:17At 14 you arrived in the UK – your mother had married by this time and you had a stepfather and four brothers – so a new country and pretty much a new family to adjust to. How much of a culture shock was it?
It was a fairly big shock really. I mean prior to coming here we were told about cold and snow and fog and you know all of this sort of thing and it's how am I going to live in this cold place that I hear about. I desperately wanted to get away from Jamaica. You know it was like a wish come true really. But as it happened prior to leaving I'd gotten on the aeroplane only to be sent back because they had lost my passport. So you know just when you thought you'd escape you sent back… coming to England was for me I think like a lot of people's experience I've heard about where I come from is very rural so therefore when you arrive here and you see all these buildings with smoke coming out of them, you know, these houses we thought were factories.
Presenter asks
17:22You were part of a growing West Indian community in Birmingham that was much discussed in the media. How much of what you heard and read reflected your own experience?
Very little, really. I mean, we heard about disease-ridden people living in an overcrowded house, you know, stealing our jobs and our women lazy, you know, and all of these negatives. And I wasn't experiencing that. So that also, you know, propelled me to that, you know, we need to document our own history. We need to hear our own voice. So definitely that influenced me somewhat.
Presenter asks
18:01What about the generation gap between you and your parents who were part of that early Windrush generation – how wide was the gap and the difference in attitudes between those sets?
Well, a lot of the older generation, I think, came and they thought that if a young person came and told them, you know, I'm being racially abused at school or by the police or by any of the institutions around, they wouldn't necessarily believe them. Their attitude is that there is no smoke without fire. And you must have done something wrong for this to happen. It wasn't until much later on that a lot of people realized that, you know, their children were being picked on, really. And for many, by then, it was too late. Because there was a lot of brutality. You know, a lot of people died at the hand of racists, you know, racism and racists in this country. You know, in police cells, a lot of them would be put in mental institutions we hear about. But that's been going on for a long time. So yes, a lot of people have been really, I have to say, brutalized by the system.
Presenter asks
25:57You exhibited a Windrush-inspired installation '5,000 Miles and 70 Years' at the MAC in Birmingham earlier this year. You're the son of one of the Windrush generation, and controversy over incorrect deportations has been making headlines. You must have been following it closely. How do you feel about it all personally?
But for the grace of God, go hi, really, because I'm one of those people. Fortunately, I happen to have applied for citizenship when it was asked and I was exempted. But I've met a number of people who since told me that they were caught up in the whole event… if you can imagine just being told you can't go back, you can't work. The ability to use the national health facilities, to work, to gain mortgage, to have a bank account, it affects every aspect of your life. So, you know, these people have been traumatized, really. It's quite shocking… I'm incensed by it all really, as a number of fair-minded thinking people would be. It's particularly horrific to treat people who were invited, if you like, to contribute. And many of them, you have to remember, paid their own fare to come here to fight the war… And they came and they contributed with their lives. And they've really developed this country in many, many respects. And to find that then you're being shoved on the scrap heap, it's a bit disheartening.
“I just thought to myself, here I am witnessing, if you like, or being able to see the arrival of people coming from the Caribbean to this country, and how fortunate I am to do that, because I think, well, what will happen two thousand years from now? And I thought the least I could do is to document that as much as possible. And so the idea was to photograph everything between birth and death, really.”
“I think ghettos, as they're referred to, are not really made by the people who move in there. They're made by the people who move out of these places, really.”
“I remember a young man [said] the negatives are not yours to burn. And for me, that solves the whole question I needn't ask anymore. It wasn't necessarily that I wanted to destroy them because I still knew the value in them, but I just wanted to question the whole process of why am I taking these images and what are their purpose and who is aware of them and who will be involved with their use.”
“It's never a time to put the camera down. That's when you can't lift it up. I don't always succeed, but I try to take photograph every day.”
“What is it to be free? What is it to spend a whole day without thinking about race? You know, what is it to spend, if you like, hours without thinking about it? What would life really be like? You know, if that is freedom, how would it be? And I'd really love to experience that. I don't think I might, though.”