Black Chronicles

A collection of extraordinary 19th-century portraits that radically shifts our understanding of the presence and identities of the Black subject in Victorian Britain.

These striking studio portraits, curated and brought together following ten years of research championed by Autograph, constitute the most comprehensive collection of 19th-century photography depicting the Black subject in the Victorian era, including some of the earliest known images of Black people photographed in Britain.

The historically marginalized lives of both ordinary and prominent Black figures of African, Afro-Caribbean, South Asian and mixed heritage are seen through a prism of curatorial advocacy and experimental scholarly assemblage. Black Chronicles features high quality reproductions of plate negatives, cartes de visite and cabinet cards, many of which were buried deep in various private and public archives including the Hulton Archive’s remarkable London Stereoscopic Company collection, unseen for decades. These photographs are linked with imperial and colonial narratives through newly commissioned essays and rare lecture transcripts, in-conversation and text interventions by Caroline Bressey, Henry Louis Gates Jr, Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall, M. Neelika Jayawardane, Lola Jaye, René Mussai and Val Wilmer, and an afterword by Mark Sealy.

Built upon groundbreaking, in-depth new research, Black Chronicles opens up photographic archives to expand and enrich photography’s complex cultural histories and subjectivities, offering an essential insight into the visual politics of race, representation and difference in the Victorian era by addressing this crucial missing chapter.

Introduction and texts by Renée Musai, Foreword by Henry Louis Gates Jr., Text by Paul Gilroy, Text by Stuart Hall, Text by Caroline Bressey, Text by Lola Jaye, Text by M. Neelika Jayawardane, Afterword by Mark Sealy, Text by Val Wilmer

Published by Thames & Hudson in partnership with Autograph.

About the Author

Renée Mussai is an independent curator, writer and scholar of visual culture. Formerly Senior Curator and Head of Collection at Autograph, she is currently Senior Research Associate at the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre (VIAD), University of Johannesburg, Associate Lecturer at University of the Arts London, and Chair of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation. Her publications include 'Eyes That Commit – A Visual Gathering' (2025), and several award-winning artist monographs.