Untitled, (circa 1988)

Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955-89) was born in Lagos to a prominent Yoruba family. After studying at Georgetown University, Washington D.C., and Pratt in New York, Fani-Kayode moved to London in 1983 where, in his Brixton studio, he made a powerful and complex body of photographs engaged with issues of race, queerness, and spirituality. Combining classical aesthetics with elements of Yoruban iconography—he refers to the ‘techniques of ecstasy’ practiced by Ife priests, from whom Fani-Kayode could trace his ancestry—he worked with Black friends and models as his subjects, also creating a unique document of a queer London community in the 1980s. Fani-Kayode’s work was beginning to gain local recognition before his premature death aged 34 but is now internationally acclaimed and collected. His photographs are influencing a new generation of American artists and have been acquired in the USA by museums including the Guggenheim, New York; the Museum of Fine Art, Houston; and Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. He is remembered in London not just for his photographs but for his presence and personality on the London photography scene. Fani-Kayode was one of the founders, in 1988, of Autograph, the Association of Black Photographers, initially based in Brixton. Autograph currently serves as his estate, preserving his archive and promoting his legacy. The featured photograph, revealing details of the artist’s studio, was not titled or dated by Fani-Kayode, and was not printed (as far as the Estate is aware) during his lifetime This is the first in a series of Autograph editioned prints, presented by Aperture, in support of Autograph and its 35 years of work in photography on the themes of race, rights, and representation.

Gelatin-Silver Print (Harman GDS baryta-coated, fibre-based, gloss)
Image Size: 15 x 15 inches
Paper Size: 20 x 24 inches
Edition of 20 + 2 Estate Proofs
Estate stamped and numbered

Rotimi Fani-Kayode was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1955. His father was a politician and chieftain of Ife, the ancestral Yoruba capital. In 1966, amid the Nigerian Civil War, 11-year-old Fani-Kayode moved with his family to Brighton, England. He went to the United States to study at Georgetown University and, later, at the Pratt Institute, where he earned an MFA in 1983. Fani-Kayode then returned to England to pursue photography. He also helped to found the organization Autograph: Association of Black Photographers.

Working during the height of the AIDS crisis and responding to the homophobia of both Thatcherite England and his home country of Nigeria, Fani-Kayode produced images that exalt queer black desire, call attention to the politics of race and representation, and explore notions of cultural identity and difference. He combined African and European iconography in his work as a way to contest the marginal status of Yoruba thought and explore the vexed position of the black body in the Western imaginary.

Fani-Kayode has had solo shows at Riverside Studios, London (1986); Harvard University’s Hutchins Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2009); Rivington Place, London (2011); Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town (2014); Tiwani Contemporary, London (2014); Syracuse University Art Galleries, New York (2016); and Hales Project Room, New York (2018). His work has been included in group exhibitions at numerous venues, including South West Arts, Bristol (1985); Oval House Theatre, London (1987); and Camerawork, London (1989). It also was featured in the African Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2003) and at ARS 11 (2011) at Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki. Fani-Kayode died in December 1989 at the age of 34.