| Code | DS/UK/548 |
| Person Name | X; Ajamu (1963-); Artist, Scholar, Archive Curator, and Sex Activist |
| Dates | 1963- |
| Dates and Places | 1963 Born in Huddersfield, England
1984-1988 Studied Black History and Photography in Leeds
1988 Moved to London
2021 Began work for his PhD at Royal College of Art, London |
| History | Ajamu X is a black British queer artist, scholar and archive curator, whose work focuses on the black queer body and experience. His work celebrates ‘black queer bodies, the erotic senses, process, production, and the sensual-material attributes of the photographic print’.
X was born in 1963 in Huddersfield, England to Jamaican parents who had emigrated to the U.K. only a year prior, and has spoken about how his experience growing up as a black queer man in the northern industrial town has shaped him, and his career. X left Huddersfield to study Black History and Photography in Leeds in 1981, and later moved to London in 1988. X had attended the first and only National Black Gay Men’s Conference in London the year prior, and the larger black and queer community which X discovered encouraged his permanent move to the capital.
X is an inspiring figure for both black and queer communities; he was a co-founder of the BLAC magazine while in Leeds in 1985, and also co-founded Rukus! in 2005 alongside Topher Campbell, the first archive centred on black British LGBTQ life and culture. X has been quoted to say that ‘it is crucial that we (black queer people) take up space’, and his career has strived to achieve this. X’s work should not be simply reduced to an exploration of identity and representation, however; he wishes to present the ‘pleasure, the erotic, the sensual’ found within black queer communities. |
| Activity | Exhibitions (Selected)
2024 A Sensual Chorus of Gestures, Amanda Wilkinson Gallery, London
2023 Ajamu: The Patron Saint of Darkrooms, Autograph, London
2023 Ecce Homo: Behold the Man, Autograph, London.
2022 Very Private, Charleston House, Sussex.
2021 Archival Senoria, Cubitt Gallery, London.
2022 Fashioning Masculinities, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
2019 Kiss My Genders, Hayward Gallery, London.
2019 Get Up, Stand Up Now, Somerset House, London.
2019 On Our Backs: The Revolution Art of Queer Sex Work, Leslie Lohman Museum, New York.
2016 Through a Queer Lens: Portraits of Jewish LGBTQ People, Jewish Museum, London. 2013 Fierce: Portraits of Black LGBT People, Guildhall Art Gallery, London.
1997 Black Circus Master, Autograph, London.
1994 Black Bodyscapes, Autograph, London
Career and Awards
2023 Selected for the Autograph/ Light Work Artist Residency.
2022 Canonised as the Patron Saint of Darkroom by The Trans Pennine Travelling Sisters/Sisters of Perpetual indulgences
2022 Royal Photographic Society - Hons Fellowship
2005 rukus! Black LGBTQ Archive established
2000 Co-founded rukus! Federation
1997 Was the Autograph/ Light Work artist-in-residence in Syracuse, USA.
1985 Set up BLAC (Black Liberation Activist Core) Magazine |
| Source | “Ajamu: The Patron Saint of Darkrooms”. Autograph. Accessed July 8, 2024. https://autograph.org.uk/exhibitions/ajamu-the-patron-saint-of-darkrooms/. |
| Huxtable, Isaac. “Ajamu X is Tired of Waiting”. British Journal of Photography (2021). Accessed July 8, 2024. https://www.1854.photography/2021/02/ajamu-x/. |
| Mayers, CL. “The Inside Story of Black British Pioneer, Ajamu X”. Another Magazine (2021). Accessed July 8, 2024. https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/13098/the-inside-story-of-black-british-queer-pioneer-ajamu-x-archive-interview. |
| Perrée, Rob. “Ajamu: Queer Photographer and Activist”. Arena for Contemporary African, African-American, and Caribbean Art. Mar 7, 2016. Accessed July 8, 2024. https://africanah.org/ajamu-queer-photographer-and-activist/. |
| Prowse, Jamila. “Creating Change: Ajamu X on the Importance of Building a Nuanced Archive of Black Queer Life”. British Journal of Photography (2021). Accessed July 8, 2024. https://www.1854.photography/2021/08/industry-insights-creating-change-ajamu-x-on-building-an-archive-of-black-queer-life/. |
| Surtees, Joshua. “Ajamu Challenges Homophobia”. Trinidad & Tobago Guardian (2014). Accessed July 8, 2024. https://www.guardian.co.tt/article-6.2.385533.75cef56aad. |
| X, Ajamu. Ajamu:Studios. Accessed July 12, 2024. https://www.ajamu-studio.com/blog. |