Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Derby
'Lovers' Rock'
120 pages, 45 full page images
Hardback
Continuing Goto’s research into historical subjects and their visual representation, this series reworks archival photographic material produced in the late nineteen-seventies by Goto himself. The negatives were stored and have never been printed, exhibited or published before. The central research question was how to contextualize and present this material in a manner that both acknowledged cultural and social developments in the interim period, and conferred appropriate meanings on the raw images.
Goto made this series of portraits of young people of mostly African-Caribbean descent, in Lewisham in 1977. Whilst acknowledging the quality of the pictures he had made, a lack of art venues and an audience interested in the community he had photographed consigned them to dormancy.
In 2010 he entered into dialogue with Mark Sealy, Director of Autograph ABP, and began researching African-Caribbean history and culture, especially within the context of the UK Diaspora. From this process of research, dialogue and materialisation a landmark book has emerged. The title, which refers to a musical sub-genre that grew out of the South London Reggae scene in the mid-seventies, is one of the framing devices Goto employs.
Interrogating memory and method is central to this exploratory project (see portfolio). Understanding the crucial differences between his own images and documentary photographs of black youths from the era has informed his decisions regarding the materialisation of the images. Maintaining their fine art intension, whilst reflecting on their accrued socio-political meanings, has been a guiding principle behind this historically resonant publication.
Uniquely the portraits offer a coherent counter narrative to dominant media representations of black youths in the ‘70s, which framed them as delinquent and riotous.
Of great importance in the process of contextualising the images are the accompanying essays by the foremost cultural historians Professors Paul Gilroy and Lola Young, Baroness of Hornsey.
