A treasure trove of recently- discovered photographs of black London life in the Seventies and Eighties is to go show in a new exhibition at Somerset House.
The pictures were taken by Michael Robert Clarke, who helped run a sound system in south London, and lay undiscovered until his family found 450 negatives after his death in 2014.
They will go on display with the work of nine other photographers as part of “a celebration of immigration in everyday life”.
It includes a series of images called Dalston Anatomy, made up of portraits side-by-side with abstract sculptures made of produce from Ridley Road market in east London.
Clarke’s daughter Rhianne, who is an artist and photographer, has tried to date the pictures and identify some of the people and places in them but is at a loss as to why her father did not tell her about them. She said: “Dad was a very calm and humble man and maybe he didn’t realise how striking the pictures were.”
The free exhibition, Kaleidoscope, runs from June 12 to September 8 alongside Get Up, Stand Up! about 50 years of black creativity.
