The National Portrait Gallery has acquired a portfolio of portraits that captures some of the most iconic and accomplished black Britons of the moment, it was announced today. Photographer Simon Frederick shot the 37 subjects when interviewing each for the upcoming BBC Two documentary, Black Is the New Black. The National Portrait Gallery will show the portraits as part of a major display opening to the public in November 2018.
The subjects in Simon’s series cover a wide breadth of different industries, from fashion icons and i-D friends like Naomi Campbell and Edward Enninful, and London’s beloved menswear designer Charlie Casely-Hayford, to musicians such as Dizzee Rascal, Laura Mvula and Jazzie B, innovators like Jamal Edwards, as well as a diverse mix of writers, journalists, architects, footballers, and trailblazers, such as Lord Morris, the first black leader of a major trade union, and Britain’s first black Archbishop, John Sentamu.
Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Dr Nicholas Cullinan, said: “These striking portraits of black British sitters powerfully reflect the diversity and variety of contemporary British achievement in public life. The National Portrait Gallery is delighted to receive Simon Frederick’s very generous gift of photographs.” We can’t wait to go see this one.
