From 'Circus Master Series'

Ajamu is a photographic artist, archive curator and radical sex activist who has exhibited in museums, galleries and alternative spaces nationally and internationally. He was born to Jamaican parents and adopted his African name in 1991. Through experimentation and risk-taking, Ajamu interrogates the intersection of Blackness and queerness. He was co-founder in 2000 of the award-winning rukus! Black LGBTQ Archive established as Europe’s first dedicated living archive devoted to Black and queer heritage, culture and experiences. His work has appeared in a diverse range of publications and critical journals.

Ajamu’s photographs reference portraiture while exploring identity, sexuality and pleasure. The sexual frankness in his work serves as an invitation to question who is looking, how, and who they are looking at, with the aim of examining our responses to the men in the photos. His works subverts the notion that there is a homogenous gay male gaze and suggests the nuances found in identity and representation. He mainly works in black and white, evoking the history and tradition of photography, not because it is devoid of colour, but as an exploration of tones of grey and all the shades found in between.