Black Chronicles

Photography, Race and Difference in Victorian Britain

Renée Mussai, Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall , Neelika Jayawardane

$100

Hardback

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English

Thames & Hudson Ltd
29 April 2025

Photographs: portraits; Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies

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, Neelika Jayawardane, Lola Jaye, and René Mussai, 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.

Published by Thames & Hudson in partnership with Autograph.

Text by: Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall, Neelika Jayawardane, Lola Jaye
Edited by: Renée Mussai
Imprint: Thames & Hudson Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 295mm, Width: 245mm,
Weight: 2.080kg
ISBN: 9780500026618
ISBN 10: 0500026610
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 29 April 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Renée Mussai is an independent curator, writer and scholar of visual culture. Formerly Senior Curator and Head of Collection at Autograph, she is currently Senior Research Associate at the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre (VIAD), University of Johannesburg, Associate Lecturer at University of the Arts London, and Chair of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation. Her publications include 'Eyes That Commit - A Visual Gathering' (2025), and several award-winning artist monographs.