Black Britannia photographic exhibition opens at the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool

Aug 13 2009 by Laura Davis, Chester Chronicle

It was a picture of Muhammad Ali that triggered John Ferguson’s ambition to become a sports photographer.

The boxer stood proudly, his arm raised in the air, looking down at his adversary on the floor of the ring.

“He’d just knocked out Sonny Liston and was shouting down at him ‘get up, come on get up’,” remembers Ferguson.

“It was so exciting for me. It had everything in it – action, emotion, theatre.”

It wasn’t easy trying to make it as a young black photographer among the sea of white faces on Fleet Street, but he did, going on to cover World Cup finals and the Olympics as well as Royal weddings, fashion shoots and conflict abroad.

Now Ferguson is using his skill to show a new generation of black youths that they too can achieve their dreams.

His exhibition, Black Britannia, highlights people who have succeeded. Some of them, such as pop singer, Estelle and Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton, are household names, while others have proven their potential outside the public arena.

It is being held at Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum, its first showing outside London, where it was opened by the Prime Minister.

“There were too many negative stories about black people involved in drugs, knives, guns and being single parents,” explains Ferguson, 44.

“If it was positive news then it was about Olympic success or a pop star getting to number one.

“There wasn’t anything tangible that was a success for the black community.”

The photographer was discussing this with a friend when he came up with the concept behind the exhibition.

“It was a two-pronged idea basically. One was to say to young black kids these people have done fantastically well through hard work and perseverance and if they can do it, you can too.

“And it’s also a message to middle England that not all black people are involved in crime.”

Singer Ms Dynamite, comedian Gina Yashere, jockey Royston Ffrench and former boxer Frank Bruno are all featured, but it was just as important to Ferguson that he include images of ordinary people.

“I had to do both because if I did a whole series of portraits of people who weren’t that well known it wouldn’t get any recognition,” he explains.

“There had to be a certain amount of well-known faces in there.”

So also included among the 30 is one of the UK’s only two black female firefighters and Gloria Hyatt, Liverpool’s first black headteacher, who founded Elimu Academy in Toxteth, the country’s first independent school to cater for racial minority pupils.

A male ballet dancer works for English National Ballet after being discovered when he was playing football on an East London housing estate.

“For any young black kid in an inner city area, to do ballet is a very difficult decision to make.

“His peers wouldn’t accept him and even his family wouldn’t be sure if he could make the grade as a dancer but he did,” says Ferguson.

“I took him back to the estate where he was spotted rather than put him on a stage or a dance studio. I tried to show that this is where he came from and it’s possible to get out of there.”

Ferguson, who grew up in North London, feels there is a shortage of role models for young black people.

His own included Liverpool boxer John Conteh, who also features in the exhibition.

The first British boxer to hold the World Light Heavyweight crown in 25 years, he was someone Ferguson looked up to as a boy.

Black Britannia is at the International Slavery Museum until February 28, 2010.