I met Eileen Perrier for the first time when I was a undergraduate student with a fresh face. I was new in the world of art, but she immediately stood out, not only because she was the only color tutor on my course, but for her critical comments and silent encouragement. His direct and fiercely warm personality attracts you to his orbit and that has had a lasting impact on me.
I remember a class trip which she organized at the gallery of autographs in eastern London. The visit was a trainer and confirmed a desire that I had to work for the organization. I would never have imagined that I will join his team and organize the first retrospective of Perrier, A thousand little stories.
Having worked in close collaboration with Perrier on the exhibition in the last 18 months, I found myself walking in the gallery on the eve of its opening, returning the gaze of each of its portraits. In the depths of a mute clay of the walls of the gallery, each evocative photograph holds a calm power, imbued with rich stories. Meeting, they are a choir of kinds, reaffirming the lyricism of Perrier's work – and why she deserves to be celebrated.
Over the past 30 years, Perrier has worked at the intersection of the social documentary and the fine arts, employing the photographic portrait as a tool for visibility and dialogue, capturing the extent, the depth and the dynamism of the British black experience.
From image to image, it raises vital questions about how we connect with each other, our shared experiences and our differences. Thanks to kinship or community, her clever eye brings each of the people she photographs with us and individually in front of us.
Born and raised in northwestern London, the double Ghanaian and Dominican heritage of Perrier had a palpable influence on his practice. Through albums and family stories shared by his mother, Grace, who arrived in Great Britain in the 1960s, Perrier came to understand his ancestral ties. However, the abyss between the lively memories of his mother of the house and the reducing imagery of Africa that Perrier saw in the photojournalism of the 1990s created a tension.
As a student in the mid -1990s, a travel grant allowed him to visit Ghana for the first time with his mother. The trip was transformer, personally and in a creative way, leading to the creation of its series Ghana (1995-96). Photographed in a very photographed way, the resulting trip and portraits saw Perrier face the limits of black and white photojournalist images that she had already seen. She kissed the textures and pluralities of her British education and her diasporical identity.
Now in the fifties, Perrier continues to subtly question the way in which identity is shaped by the place, history and family. Timer richly on narration as a form of restoration and resistance is what makes his photographs so distinct and timeless. His visual language is shaped by a deep commitment to 19th century painting and African studio photography. She quotes photographers such as the Nigerian JD 'Okhai Ojeikere and Malian Seydou Keïta as key influences.
What takes place is a playful but deliberate experimentation with traditional composition and techniques. Despite the ethical complexities and tensions often associated with the photography of others, the approach of Perrier center the personality and the community. By creating inclusive and collaborative environments where the guards are seen with care and intention, she succeeds in doing the act of photographing not only visible but significant.
THE Red, gold and green Series (1996-97)Commissioned by autograph while Perrier was still a student, is an example of this approach. His mother, separated from Perrier's father in the 1960s, found support in a very united community, where distant parents, friends of the school and their spouses have formed an extended family. Perrier photographed this circle: three generations of British Ghanaians, alongside parents of Jamaican, Irish, English and mixed backgrounds, in the rooms of their houses in London. Using living and lively fabric sets in red, gold and green of the Ghanaian flag, she created makeshift studios. The resulting images reveal intimate traces of their lives: family photographs, dear memories and important ornaments are woven in each setting.
London continues to provide Inspiration to Perrier and prepare the ground for several series presented in the exhibition. With more than 100 photographs on display, the show also includes a remarkable ephemeral, including a school portrait of Perrier, at the age of 10. This image has become the catalyst for Grace (2000), a series that explored her diastem (a gap between the two front teeth), a line that she shares with her mother, and has slowly plunged into themes of difference and an inherited identity.
It is also included in its retrospective Afro Hair and Beauty Show (1998-2003). Perrier has spent several years photographing the effervescent atmosphere of this major annual event celebrating the cultivation of African hair and the Caribbean. “Growing up, my hair was often styled in cornrows or wrapped in black cotton thread-a traditional West African hairstyle,” she thinks. “Over the years, I experienced long braids, then wigs at the end of my adolescence, before finally shaving my head at university and blocking my hair.”
Marking Autograph's long -standing relationship with Perrier, it seemed appropriate to order it again. Twenty-two (2025) in some respects, echoes aspects of Red, gold and green From decades earlier. The series reflects on the complexity of growth and, for the first time, Perrier photographed his son, Lewis, alongside his friends. She reflects that “becoming a single parent when my son was six years old had a deep impact on my personal and professional life; It forced me to reassess the management of my career and the decisions I had to make to move forward. Now he is 22 years old, I realize that these changes were not only necessary for survival but for its growth and growth.
Although the show is festive, it is more than a simple reflection on his career. Perrier's practice as an educator and artist is a powerful reminder to those who forge creative careers alongside maternity, healthcare commitments and quiet work of daily life. In his world, a commission has never just been a job but an act of perseverance and a gesture of care. Perrier remains a well -necessary voice in the cannon of photography, making stories that become too often invisible.
“Eileen Perrier: a thousand of little stories” is in Autograph, London, until September 13. Organized by Bindi Vora. Free entry. autograph.org.uk
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