London gets a real treat with this breathtaking, uplifting, seriously good touring exhibition of works drawn from the Wedge Collection. Based on the Aperture publication of the same title, and brilliantly curated by Elliot Ramsey,
As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic brings together portraiture of Black subjects authored by Black subjects from the mid 20th century to today.
Major draws include a chance to see vintage prints by the likes of West African masters Malick Sidibé, Sory Sanlé, Seydou Këita, through to Jamal Shabazz, an early work by Carrie Mae Weems, and a rare black and white documentary portrait by Aïda Muluneh. There are also portraits by more recent superstars in the photo world, such as Kennedi Carter, the youngest photographer to ever shoot a Vogue cover, (aged 21 in 2020).
You might come for the famous names – but you’ll stay for the less celebrated: the Wedge Collection’s Dr Kenneth Montague has a sensibility and sensitivity for histories untold across the Black Atlantic, introducing Canadian artists like Tayo Yannick Anton, and Jamaican artists such as Ruddy Roye, whose bold visions of his homeland are revealed through striking portraits of Jamaicans taken on the beaches of Montego Bay.
