Jo Sealy and the Black Artisans Exhibition
20 September 2024
To celebrate the launch of the Black Artisans exhibition at Haworth Art Gallery, photographer Jo Sealy is doing a special social media takeover of Creative Lancashire channels on 20/09 to share more about this photography & craft exhibition celebrating Black British artisanal excellence. Read more below.
Hi, I’m Jo Sealy, a photographer based in Essex.
My day job is running a marketing agency that works with creative, tech and food clients. I have a great small team around me which enables me to develop and work on commissioned social documentary photography projects.
The Black Artisans is one of my ongoing projects, originally started in 2021 with an initial 27 images taken and exhibited at the WMGallery and as part of Crafts Council #WeGather show.
I’ve continued finding and photographing Black artisans and showing at the recent Festival of Making, there are 11 new portraits taken during this year. There are hugely talented Black Artisans of all kinds working in the UK and the project is aiming to give them visibility and access to opportunities.
The work captures Black craftspeople doing what they do best, creating beautiful things in their very individual spaces, expressing sometimes very personal sides to their personalities through their chosen medium
To celebrate the launch of our latest exhbition at the Haworth Art Gallery in Accrington (20/09 - 06/10/24), I’ll be sharing with you behind-the-scene insights around the project, sharing stories behind the shots taken and introduce you to some of the amazing Black Artisans that are part of this selection of portraits
For the new images taken over the past year I’ve continued the theme of showing people concentrating and focused on the piece they were working on. Everything is shot either with natural light or with flash.
Finding new artisans has taken a different tone this time around. A number of people have suggested people to photograph – from master bedmakers to watch repairers.
I’ve taken many images that captured the mood and atmosphere of artisans’ work spaces – people love seeing them, other makers love seeing them too!
When it came to asking the Black Artisans if they wanted to be in the project most said yes straight away, no explanation was needed, they got it.
As well as having their portrait taken each artisan was recorded responding to questions around the path to their practice and their creative journeys so far.
Here is Cheltenham-based leather craftsman Kingsley Thompson.
Being able to find a wide cross section of Black Artisans was achieved in a few ways – I had a target list of the types of crafts that I definitely wanted to track down plus a combination of my contacts list.
Over the years I’ve done a lot of consultancy and marketing work within the creative industries. So I had a good starting point, and it’s been brilliant to be able to bring to together these contacts in this project.
A new artisan was Judith Annakie-Eriksen of JAE Ceramics, photographed in her converted garage space brimming with fired works.
Moving from a career as a public relations professional to fulltime ceramics and pottery maker, Judith has returned to her roots of adding hand-built elements to the wheel-thrown vessel in the film.
Here's a film link with more about Judith.
Judith will be unveiling and discussing one of three vessels at The Haworth Art Gallery on 6 October.
It was extremely important to me that Black Artisans working in cultural areas be represented in the project.
Those practicing in these areas have extraordinary skills often passed on in informal ways.
They are simply not represented in mainstream forums.
An example of this is steel pan makers and tuners. Not only are the individuals involved in this area literally feted all over the world there is a need to pass on their skills otherwise they will disappear.
Dudley Dickson and Toussaint Clarke in this image are pioneers in their fields and came to London to do the shoot.
Actually doing the shoot was quite emotional. Simply hearing the pan tuning going on around me in the cavernous space in Ladbroke Grove, where we did the shoot, took me back to the excitement and frenzy around Carnival mas camps and Panorama (the annual music competition of steelbands from T&T) held around Carnival time in Trinidad.
One of the highlights of the project has been to seen the artisans’ workshops – some bespoke, some makeshift!
Jeweller Angela Benjamin – AngeB – has a great ‘she studio’ where she makes her one of a kind pieces and where she shared her journey.
Many of the artisans photographed were based outside of London in a whole myriad of types of workspaces.
Adaesi Ukairo works from a wonderfully atmosphere wooden building in Hastings. She shapes her sculptural forms from flat sheets of copper and brass using hammers and forming stakes.
Working intuitively, Adaesi engages her metals unique properties of malleability and strength to express in tangible form the fluid movement of energy.
Adaesi will be sharing her approach at a workshop at the Haworth Art Gallery in Accrington on 6th October.
I also had the great opportunity photograph Carla Sealey (pictured right, no relation) in her brand new studio in Bedfordshire.
Carla uses both handbuilding and slip casting techniques in her work with natural textured finishes.
The Black Artisans "Celebrating Excellence" exhibition will be running at Haworth Art Gallery in Accrington from 20th September until 6th October 2024.
Find out more the FREE planned events, and book your place, here.
A big thanks to Jo Sealy for sharing more about the Black Artisans Project and Exhibition!
More about Jo Sealy and her work here:
Instagram: @josealyphoto
Website: josealyphoto.com
Black Artisans: theblackartisans.org
IMAGE CREDITS:
Jo Sealy head shot - Nicola Tree
Festival of Making Black Artisan Exhibition photos - Robin Zahler and Fiona Finchett
Black Artisans head shots - Jo Sealy