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.
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