Portrait of Black Britain at Aviva Studios

A powerful exhibition from photographer Cephas Williams returns to Manchester this October. Featuring 116 portraits of Black British people, it explores the question: ‘What does it mean to be Black, living in the UK?’

The exhibition offers a multitude of possible answers, presenting a panoramic view of Black life in the UK that highlights not just high-profile people or success stories but individuals from across the country, from all walks of life.

Portrait of Black Britain was initially commissioned for Manchester International Festival in 2021, and hung in the Arndale. This was at a time when long overdue conversations about Black communities were taking place on an international level, as the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in the United States in May 2020. Whether, half a decade on, the same portraits lands differently is worth bearing in mind.

Williams’ practice contributes to this ongoing dialogue by reminding us of the many faces, lives and diversity of experience that make up Black Britain through his range of portraits – including many with local significance, featuring people from Greater Manchester. 

Speaking in 2021, Williams said, “You could look at it as my mission to document what it feels like or what it means to be Black living in Britain in the 21st century. For me growing up, I didn’t feel a centralised understanding of what it meant to be Black or African.”  

Reflecting those sentiments, Portrait of Black Britain utilises its 116 photographs to compose for us and future generations a holistic snapshot of the African diaspora in the UK in the 21st century.

For Williams, this is one stage of a bigger project, as the creator behind 56 Black Men, Letter to Zion and the Black British Network builds towards his vision of a significant, large-scale photographic archive of Black people living in the UK.