Vanley Burke
One of the finest anthropological photographers working in Britain, Vanley Burke has featured heavily in publications such as The New York Times and the Guardian as well as over 60 major exhibitions around the world.For the last 40 years he has continued to capture Black communities in England and in particular in Handsworth, Birmingham. His focus on one area has allowed him to build an intimate relationship with the community, granting him an extraordinary amount of access to people's lives.
In conjunction with his photography Vanley has also been an avid collector of rare material relating to the community including posters, adverts, flyers and audio tapes.
As a result, he has produced a body of work that is an unrivaled account of social Black history in Britain. The Vanley Burke archive has helped to form the basis of research for the entire series of films in Handsworth Conversations.
Vanley Burke is part of the Tate Britain's latest photographic exhibition 'How We Are: Photographing Britain', featuring alongside Lewis Carroll, Julia Margaret Cameron, Bill Brandt, Madame Yevonde, David Bailey and Tom Hunter. The exhibition runs from 22 May to 2 September 2007.
For more details on the exhibition, visit the Tate Britain website at www.tate.org.uk/britain/
