Ajamu Ikwe-Tyehimba

Ajamu, born in Huddersfield in 1963, is a British darkroom/fine art photographer and archive curator whose work has been at the forefront of celebrating Black queer bodies since the early 1990s. Many of his images include portraits, self-portraits and nudes that unapologetically highlight eroticism, pleasure, desire, intimacy and difference as central elements of Black British queer lives.  Ajamu has developed a deep interest in early analogue printing techniques, process, materiality, and the thingness of the resultant photographic image.

Ajamu’s work has been exhibited widely in museums, galleries and alternative spaces across Europe, North America, the Caribbean, and the UK. These included in 2019 Get Up Stand Up at Somerset House, UK, Kiss My Genders at Hayward Gallery, UK, and The Revolutionary Art of Queer Sex Work at Leslie Lohman Museum, USA. His book, Ajamu: Archive was published via a successful Kick Starter campaign in 2021.