Shoreditch, London, based visual arts charity Autograph has received the entire photographic estate of Jamaican-British photographer Armet Francis. This is a significant body of work that brings over 70,000 images into their permanent collection of photography. Spanning more than four decades, Francis’s work celebrates the resilience and survival of African diasporic communities. To mark the gift, Autograph is sharing a selection of rarely seen archival photographs in a new online display.
For over forty years, Armet Francis’ mission in photography has been to document the African diaspora. As a Jamaican-British photographer with an acute understanding of black consciousness, his life-affirming images celebrate the resilience and survival of African diasporic cultures. Francis is now recognised as a pioneering figure in the photographic canon, best known for his social documentary, advertising and fashion images.
Francis’ archive encapsulates fragmented experiences of Pan-African diasporic communities: his 1970s Brixton Market fashion shoots are playful and rare frames of black joy and celebration; his 2008 commemorative portraits of those who arrived on the HMT Empire Windrush in 1948 are critical interventions that gave names to the faces of those who journeyed on that historic voyage that changed Britain forever. The archive also contains his seminal series The Black Triangle which guided his photographic practice from 1969.
In 2024 Francis was awarded a grant by independent charity Art360 to receive support in maintaining his archive of work – including inventory management, legal consultancy, photographic and film documentation. As a result of the Art360 project, the photographer has gifted his works to visual arts charity Autograph where it will be cared for as part of their collection of photography. This gift comprises over 70,000 images, including negatives, prints and archival material documenting Francis' career from the late 1960s onwards.
Francis was one of the founding signatories of Autograph in 1988, making this acquisition particualrly significant for the organisation. The charity is proud to have worked with the artist over many years across several artist commissions and his acclaimed solo exhibition Armet Francis: Beyond the Black Triangle at their London gallery in Shoreditch. Since 1988, Autograph’s mission has remained unchanged: to championed photography and the work of artists that explores issues of race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice.
A new online gallery brings together a selection of these photographs, many of which have rarely been seen in public. Together they offer an insight into Francis' lifelong commitment to documenting the communities across Africa, the Americas and Europe. The online gallery can be viewed at: autograph.org.uk/armet-francis
This acquisition highlights the charity’s ongoing commitment to preserve the legacy of practitioners, like Francis, who have recorded important diverse narratives that have contributed to the representation of Black British history. Autograph’s Director, Professor Mark Sealy, said: “Armet Francis forged a photographic practice as an act of historical resistance: a visual counter-archive confronting the enduring violence of the Atlantic Slave Trade and its afterlives in contemporary Black diasporic life. From his exhibition The Black Triangle at The Photographer’s Gallery in 1983 to the self-publication of the book, which carried the same title in 1985, Francis’s work emerged from and spoke directly to the radical tradition of Black Consciousness. His radicality is expansive, restless, and deeply interdisciplinary, driven by an urgent commitment to rupture dominant narratives and open new ways of seeing Black subjectivity. Moving across fashion, portraiture, and social documentary, Francis became foundational to the development of Autograph ABP, insisting on Black photography not as a marginal practice, but as a transformative cultural and political force. It is therefore with profound pride that we announce the archives of Armet Francis will be preserved and cared for in their rightful home, Autograph, where they will continue to provoke research, sharpen critical discourse, and inspire future generations.”
Art360’s Head of Artists' Services, Daniel Rudd, said: “I’m delighted to see Armet Francis’s archive enter Autograph’s collection, ensuring that the work of one of the most important photographic voices of his generation is preserved, studied and shared with future audiences. It has been a privilege to support this project and to help secure a permanent home for such a significant body of work. This outcome reflects the vital role organisations such as Autograph play in safeguarding photographic heritage and would not have been possible without the dedication and expertise of archivist Clare Hewitt and artist Eileen Perrier. As part of DACS’s commitment to supporting artists and protecting their legacy, we are proud to have played a role in helping secure greater recognition of, and long-term access to, this remarkable archive.”
Images: (top): Armet Francis, Fashion Shoot, Brixton Market, London , 1973. © Armet Francis. Collection of Autograph, London; (Centre): Armet Francis, from the series Lambeth and Brixton Tube , 1994. © Armet Francis. Commissioned by Autograph, London; (lower): Armet Francis, Fashion shoot for 19 Magazine , c.1973. © Armet Francis. Collection of Autograph, London.
