Watch Now – Charisse Kenion and Vanley Burke in conversation

If you missed our recent Zoom talk with Charisse Kenion and Vanley Burke, you can now watch it in full on Ikon’s YouTube channel.

On 4 June 2020, photographer Charisse Kenion joined thousands of people who gathered in Birmingham to support the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd on 25 May in the US. Kenion produced a series of photographs which communicate the power of a community that, in exchanging the iPhone for a cardboard placard, turned from consumer to producer of news media. In this interview, Kenion questions artist Vanley Burke, who also photographed the protest, on the role of the camera, in validating moments of political action and focusing on inequalities, for the purpose of social change.

Charisse Kenion is a Birmingham-based beauty writer and photographer. She has written and spoken about beauty for 15 years and is the host of the BeautyMe podcast.

Vanley Burke is often described as the ‘Godfather of Black British Photography’: an artist, photographer and curator whose archive, surveying the Black British experience, is held at the Library of Birmingham. His exhibition, At Home with Vanley Burke, took place at Ikon Gallery in 2015.