Vanley Burke Retrospective, By the Rivers of Birminam; Exhibition Opening and launch of Accompanying Public Programme.

Vanley Burke. Velrose, Cannon Hill Park. 1972 (c.).

The Vanley Burke Retrospective exhibition titled, By the rivers of Birminam, opened at the FADA Gallery on Thursday evening. 
The Executive Dean Federico Freschi welcomed everyone, especially Vanley Burke, the photographer and the curator Lynda Morris. The opening was well attended by staff, students and the local community; enjoying great food, appropriate Rastafarian music, and warming fires – an evening enjoyed by all. Tracy Murinik, research and projects Director in VIAD gave the opening address.

Vanley Burke, African Liberation Day, Handsworth park. The crowd listens to speakers
from Africa, America and the Caribbean bringing news and information
of the Black Diaspora. 1977.

By the Rivers of Birminam an exhibition by Vanley Burke and accompanying Public Programme.

Themba Mantshiyo reading Vanley Burke's retrospective 
exhibition statement, By the rivers of Birninam.

The Exhibition

FADA Gallery. 

Bunting Road Campus, corner Annet and Bunting road (Opposite Gasworks)

Gallery hours: Mondays to Fridays 09:00 – 16:00.

Wilhemina viewing the works.

Farieda, Lesley and Thandi.

The Accompanying Public Programme.

First Panel Discussion. Today Sunday 27 July 2014, 15h00 -17h00. FADA Gallery.

Positions of Enunciation; Presenting, Reading and Receiving by the Rivers of Birninam.

‘We all write and speak from a particular place and time, from history and a culture which is specific, What we say is always 'in context‘, positioned (Hall 1993:23)

Chair: Nontobeko Ntombela

Presenters: Vanley Burke, Leora Farber, Shona Hunter, Lynda Morris and Tracey Murinik.

PS. The rest of the program is listed at the bottom of this post entry.
For further information on the exhibition and Public Programme schedule, please contact Reshma Chhiba: reshmac@uj.ac.za (011) 559-1393.

Vanley Burke, Africa Liberation Day,
Handsworth Park (Detail) 1977.

Exhibition Opening Address 
by Tracy Murinik 
(VIAD - Research and Projects Director) 
Visual identities in Art and Design Research Centre is incredibly proud to host this exhibition, as well as Vanley Burke (photographer and anthropologist) and Lynda Morris  (the curator of the exhibition). For the centre, where our core research focus for this year is around photography, and the issues that surround the medium of photography in relation to visual representation, issues of power, agency and legacy, 

Vanley Burke, Two young men make signs with their
hands at the reopening of Handsworth Park. 2006.

By the rivers of Birminam, brought into this particular context, in South Africa, raises – in the most beautiful, challenging, and poetic ways – critical questions and observations about the broader politics of photographic representation, specifically as they pertain to documentary photography.

Vanley Burke, David Hinds, founding member
of Steel Pulse, a reggae band whose songs
included Handsworth Revolution and
Ku Klux Klan. 2008.

Vanley’s work; its integral relationship to the socio-political historical context in which it was produced; its - and his – connectedness to Birmingham’s intellectual and cultural milieu from the late1950’s onwards; and the issues around the politics of photographic representation that it raises, form some of these key points that we will be exploring in depth throughout our series of public programme events designed around the exhibition.

Some of these key points include questions of why the research Centre has chosen to bring British photography to South Africa when we could be showing South African photographs.

• What relevance the subject matter has for a South African context.
• And of what relevance such an exhibition is to the research centre itself? 

Well, we believe that this exhibition – its photographs, its subject matters, and Vanley himself – have substantial relevance and resonance, both to the Centre’s current themes and discussions, but also, necessarily to a South African context of image-making.

Vanley Burke, Rustafarian high priest,
radio presenter, and MC for Jah Voice Sound.
Colin Braham, also known as Ras Tread, on
the mic at Marcus Garvey Day
 celebration, Handsworth
Park, 2005.

Mariapaola (FADA Gallery curator)
with Linda Morris, curator of the
Vanley Burke Retrospective exhibition
By the Rivers of Birminam. 

South Africa’s photographic history is heavily weighted towards documentary photography, which has strongly represented – both as historical record and activist undertaking – the socio-political evolution of this country. Contemporary photography in South Africa remains steeped in a documentary tradition, with a younger generation of photographers continuing to engage and further this legacy – some doing so as activists; other seeking to capture and articulate the specificities of their space and place in a contemporary South African context.

Vanley Burke, African Liberation Daymarch through Handsworth. 1977.

So, with acknowledging of the differing historical, political, geographical and social context between Vanley’s Birmingham photographs and a South African history, Vanley’s work nevertheless finds eloquent parallels and resonance with a number of archives of documentary photographs taken by south African photographers working during a similar time frame, whose photographs similarly represent – as historical records and activist undertakings – the socio-political evolution of this country.

Tracy Murinik &
Dr Judy Peter.  

Tracy Murinik (VIAD)

She has worked with the art world and the media in South Africa for over twenty years as an art writer, critic journalist, editor, curator and researcher. She is currently based in VIAD, as Research and Projects Director.

Acknowledgements and thanking. A special word of thanks to Neo, Theo, Pebo and Mildah for their assistance (image above).

VIAD PUBLIC Program. Accompanying By The Rivers of Birminam

The exhibition will be accompanied by a Public Programme of panel discussions, conversations and presentations, designed to engage with many of these complex questions and issues.

For further information on the exhibition and Public Programme schedule please contact Reshma Chhiba: reshmac@uj.ac.za (011) 559-1393.

Sunday 27 July: 3-5pm.

Panel discussion 1.

Positions of enunciation: presenting, reading and receiving by The Rivers of Birminam.

Monday 28 July: 6-8pm.

Panel discussion 2.

Voice: Agency, Relationality, Subjectivity, Difference.

Tuesday 29 July: 6-7:30pm.

Critical recordings: Photographing Black Britain - Conversation between Vanley burke and Vron Ware.

Wednesday 30 July: 5;30-7:30pm.

Panel discussion 2.

Repositioning the Archive.

Catering ByVIAD with the assistance of students mentioned above.

Vanley Burke: By the Rivers of Birminam at FADA Gallery. Press Release.

Vanley Burke, Young men on See Saw, in Handsworth Park. 1970 -1979.

FADA Gallery is proud to host By the Rivers of Birminam – a retrospective exhibition of 100 photographs by esteemed documentary photographer and cultural anthropologist, Dr Vanley Burke. Curated by Professor Lynda Morris (Research Professor Curation and Art History, Norwich University of the Arts),

Exhibition Opening: 18:00, Thursday 24 July 2014.

Presented by VIAD (Visual Identities in Art and Design) Research Centre the exhibition documents the history of the diasporic African-Caribbean community in Birmingham, and particularly the area of Handsworth, from 1968 to 2011. In its photographic detailing of the everyday lives of Birmingham’s black community for close on four decades, this profound visual record represents one of the most extensive and significant photographic archives of African-Caribbean life in postwar Britain. Burke’s intimate, insider’s view presents an alternative to the often sensationalist and biased representations of black Britons ubiquitously reproduced in the British mass media from the late 1960s through to the 1980s, providing a counter-narrative to those representations.

 Vanley Burke, Red Lion Bar, 1970-1979.

A touring exhibition, commissioned and produced by mac:birmingham, supported by Arts Council England, Norwich University of the Arts, The Bryant Trust and The Roughley Trust.

Portrait of a woman
1970-1979.

Burke’s photographic practice raises questions that speak cogently to the broader politics of photographic representation, and more specifically as they pertain to documentary photography, as well as to postcolonial debates around the diasporic conditions of uprootedness, alienation, displacement, adaptation and belonging. 

African Liberation Day,
Handsworth Park 1977 (c.)

With acknowledgment of how the differing historical, political, geographic and social contexts in which photographs are taken significantly influence the ways in which they are read, Burke’s work finds strong resonance, despite their very different socio-political contexts, with many examples and archives of documentary photographs taken by South African photographers working during a similar time frame, whose photographs similarly represent – 
as historical records and activist undertakings – the socio-political evolution of the country. Issues and considerations raised by Burke’s photographic work have on-going relevance, in that contemporary photography in South Africa remains steeped in this documentary tradition, with a younger generation of photographers continuing to engage and further that legacy. Some do so as activists; others seek to capture the zeitgeist of their particular social domain or socio-economic political era, producing photographs that articulate the specificities of their space and place in a contemporary South African context.

Film: Vanley Burke Talks about his life. Follow Link.

VIAD PUBLIC Program. Accompanying By The Rivers of Birminam

The exhibition will be accompanied by a Public Programme of panel discussions, conversations and presentations, designed to engage with many of these complex questions and issues.

For further information on the exhibition and Public Programme schedule please contact Reshma Chhiba: reshmac@uj.ac.za (011) 559-1393.

Sunday 27 July: 3-5pm.

Panel Discussion 1.

Positions of Enunciation: Presenting, Reading and Receiving by The Rivers of Birminam.

Monday 28 July: 6-8pm.

Panel Discussion 2.

Voice: Agency, Relationality, Subjectivity, Difference

Tuesday 29 July: 6-7:30pm.

Critical Recordings: Photographing Black Britain - conversation between Vanley burke and Vron Ware

Wednesday 30 July: 5;30-7:30pm.

Panel discussion 3.

Repositioning the Archive

Thursday 31 July: 6-8pm.

Film Screening. Handsworth Songs (1986) Black audio film collective

Friday 1 August: 2-3pm

Public Walkabout: Vanley Burke presents a walkabout of his photographs on exhibition.

Tuesday 5 August: 6-8.30pm

Panel discussion 4

Need and impulse: The complex impetus to ‘capture’ and ‘shoot’

Dr. Vanley Burke
as cited at The Voice

Dr. Vanley Burke; Photographer and Cultural Anthropologist. Biography as cited at LEGACYTYNEANDWEAR: ARCHIVES

Vanley Burke has been living and working in Birmingham since 1965. He started to record the community around him in the late 1960's and has continued this personal journey to the present day. Burkes images represent a sensitive portrayal of people from Britain, Europe and South Africa. http://www.vanley.co.uk/

Vanley Burke's work has been published widely across the world, and featured heavily in The Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, and more. Burke has featured in over 60 major exhibitions across in Britain, Europe, America and South Africa.

He has used this visual medium to create a visual history of the African-Caribbean communities in and around the Midlands. Here he has captured that tension which is so hard to put into words, but which is understood by looking at this picture. The tension of the immigrant child of every generation spoke as loudly to me as if I were looking at reflection of my self as a boy. The young man, who could be standing in a park in Kingston, Jamaica, is marked by the stamp of nationality, the union flag that emblem of common identity that called families such as his like mine, out from their homelands in search of a better life.  This is Handsworth, but it could as easily be Tottenham, Brixton, or Peckham. It is the symbol of the hope of a generation.

David Lammy, MP Minister of Culture The Guardian - cited  at legacy archives org uk.

What matters is the photographers capacity to capture the truth the authenticity of experience, that is already there in the lives as it is being lived. However carefully the practice of documenting is conducted (and Vanley Burke is a highly skilled, highly professional, patient and experience practitioner) in the end what makes a memorable image in the documentary tradition is its fidelity to a reality, an experience, outside the means of representation, beyond the constructed photographic space of the recorded image.

Professor Stuart Hall - cited at legacy archives org uk.