Photographer Franklyn Rodgers has a distinctive, rather abstract approach to portraiture, using monochrome photography and dramatic lighting to create dramatic and even bizarre compositions. But the importance of the show for many will be its celebration of black culture and black success.

Coincidentally, one of the NPG’s most recent commissions shows another aspect of black culture in Britain – the presence of black Britons in the armed forces.

It’s a portrait of Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry, who received the Victoria Cross for his bravery in twice saving colleagues under fire while serving in Iraq. While he’s shown in full dress uniform, it’s not a pompous portrait – rather, what’s shown is a man who has been wounded, who is still in pain; stoical, and modest. Quite an unusual military portrait.

Following up that theme of black Britons in the forces, you might want to meet John Deman at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich on April 6th. John left the West Indies to join Nelson’s fleet in the war against Napoleon, and ended up as a Greenwich Pensioner. The series of re-enactments of historical figures at Greenwich includes other figures such as Samuel Pepys and pirate Grace O’Malley, but I find Deman one of the most intriguing. (If you miss him this time round, he’ll be back in May.)

Performances in the Painted Hall are at 1200, 1300, 1430 and 1530, and are free.

Post from: The London Traveler