James Barnor, outstanding contribution to photography 2027
James Barnor is announced today as the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography title at the Sony World Photography Awards 2027, the landmark 20th edition celebrating two decades of championing photographers from around the world.
Recognised as Ghana’s first photojournalist, Barnor documented his country’s journey to independence in 1957 and later established its first colour photography laboratory. His work bridges continents and cultures, capturing Black communities in Accra and London during decades of profound transformation. Barnor is best known for his remarkable portraits, taken from the 1950s to the 1970s, celebrating the beauty, style and glamour of Black social life. From his renowned Ever Young studio, to the streets of downtown Accra and central London, Barnor captured the identity of his subjects, creating a visual archive of their daily lives. With this award, he joins an illustrious list of names whose careers have shaped the history of the medium.
A retrospective of over 50 works by James Barnor will be on view at London’s Somerset House next April, as part of a special presentation at the flagship Sony World Photography Awards 2027 exhibition. Following his path from Accra to London, his studies in colour photography and his return to Ghana, the retrospective brings together photographic prints and ephemera from across his career, highlighting the moments that defined his practice.
Born in 1929, Barnor trained under his cousin, the portrait photographer J. P. D. Dodoo. In 1950, he became the first staff photographer at Ghana’s newly launched Daily Graphic, giving voice and representation to Ghanaians in this period of rapid social change. As a photojournalist, he documented this moment in history through the eyes of those who lived it, from rallies and street parades to Kwame Nkrumah’s declaration of independence. In 1953, he opened the Ever Young studio in Accra’s Jamestown district, where he photographed shop assistants, students and traffic officers alongside judges and political figures, capturing a society in the act of defining itself.
He moved to the UK in 1959 to deepen his technical knowledge of the medium, studying at Medway College of Art in Kent, and going on to work as a colour printer at Colour Processing Laboratories, one of Britain’s leading colour labs. In this period Barnor also worked for Drum, the influential Black South African lifestyle magazine known for its anti-apartheid reporting, where his portraits of Black models and celebrities appeared on its covers and in its fashion pages. These images became part of a broader visual language of the African continent and its diaspora, serving as vital reference points for readers and inspiring photographers and artists for decades to come.
A decade later, following training with Agfa-Gevaert in Belgium and Germany, Barnor returned to Ghana as the company’s technical representative. He set up the country’s first colour processing laboratory, introducing colour photography to new audiences while continuing to work as a photographer and journalist. His work was instrumental in shaping the tradition of photography in Ghana and paving the way for aspiring photographers across the region.
In the early 1990s he settled back in London, where he lives today. Barnor’s work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions and publications, including a touring retrospective curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, shown at the Serpentine in London in 2021, MASI Lugano, Switzerland, in 2022 and the Detroit Institute of Arts, USA in 2023. James Barnor: Stories, Pictures from the Archive (1947-1987), curated by Matthieu Humery, opened at LUMA Arles, France in 2022, and was marked by the launch of the James Barnor Prize, dedicated to African photographers. In October 2023, James Barnor, Studio of Life opened at FOMU Antwerp, Belgium. Coinciding with the photographer’s 95th birthday, the James Barnor 95 festival was held in Accra and Tamale, Ghana, in May 2024, with a month-long programme. In 2025 his work featured in the exhibition Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), USA. In 2026 Barnor’s work was shown as part of Ibrahim Mahama’s exhibition Le Temps des Récoltes at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, France.
The Outstanding Contribution to Photography award recognises the voices behind some of the most groundbreaking photographic work of our time. James Barnor joins a distinguished list of names including Martin Parr (2017), Graciela Iturbide (2021), Edward Burtynsky (2022), Sebastião Salgado (2024), Susan Meiselas (2025) and Joel Meyerowitz (2026).
James Barnor will be presented with his award at the annual gala ceremony in London on 15 April 2027, during an evening of celebrations where the overall winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2027 will be announced.
