A collection of extraordinary 19th-century portraits that radically shifts our understanding of
the presence and identities of the Black subject in Victorian Britain. These striking studio
portraits curated and brought together following ten years of research championed by Autograph
constitute the most comprehensive collection of 19th-century photography depicting the Black
subject in the Victorian era including some of the earliest known images of Black people
photographed in Britain. The historically marginalized lives of both ordinary and prominent
Black figures of African Afro-Caribbean South Asian and mixed heritage are seen through a
prism of curatorial advocacy and experimental scholarly assemblage. Black Chronicles features
high quality reproductions of plate negatives cartes de visite and cabinet cards many of
which were buried deep in various private and public archives including the Hulton Archive's
remarkable London Stereoscopic Company collection unseen for decades. These photographs are
linked with imperial and colonial narratives through newly commissioned essays and rare lecture
transcripts in-conversation and text interventions by Caroline Bressey Henry Louis Gates Jr
Paul Gilroy Stuart Hall M. Neelika Jayawardane Lola Jaye Renée Mussai and Val Wilmer and
an afterword by Mark Sealy. Built upon groundbreaking in-depth new research Black
Chronicles opens up photographic archives to expand and enrich photography's complex cultural
histories and subjectivities offering an essential insight into the visual politics of race
representation and difference in the Victorian era by addressing this crucial missing chapter.
Introduction and texts by Renée Musai Foreword by Henry Louis Gates Jr. Text by Paul Gilroy
Text by Stuart Hall Text by Caroline Bressey Text by Lola Jaye Text by M. Neelika
Jayawardane Afterword by Mark Sealy Text by Val Wilmer Published by Thames & Hudson in
partnership with Autograph.
