Author: Ajamu

Ajamu is a photographic artist—scholar, archive curator, and radical sex activist who has exhibited in museums, galleries, and alternative spaces nationally and internationally. His philosophical political-aesthetic incorporates portraiture/studio-based constructed imagery and early analog printing processes which unapologetically celebrate Black queer bodies, the erotic sense[s], pleasure as activism, and difference. His work has appeared in a wide variety of publications and critical journals worldwide. He is the co-founder of the award-winning rukus! Federation and the rukus! Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer + Archive and one of a few leading specialists on Black British LGBTQ+ history, heritage, and cultural memory in the UK. In October 2022, he was a recipient of an honorary fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society. His 2021 solo exhibition, Ajamu: Archival Sensoria, curated by Languid Hands, paid homage to the passion and intimacy that exists within Black queer communities. His recent group exhibitions include Kiss My Genders, Hayward Gallery, 2019; Get Up Stand Up, Somerset House 2019.

Photo: Marinus Toorman, 2018.