A community activist and photographer has created a new exhibition.
The Descendants Exhibition by photographer Ean Flanders pays tribute to over forty outstanding creatives, artists and activists of African and Caribbean heritage in Liverpool.
Some of the people featured include historians Ray Costello and Laurence Westgaph. It also includes a range of others like Toxteth's Khan Odita, 15, and Maria O'Reilly who has over 50 years experience in community work and activism.
READ MORE: Brothers 'scared' to return to Adelphi Hotel after 'ghost' caught on camera
Ean told the ECHO: “Despite regeneration in the 80s and 90s, barriers to equity and resources for black and brown communities has meant they have not been able to be fully accessed. This exhibition is important to me, to be able to highlight the continued discrimination people of African and Caribbean origin are facing in the city.
"People from the African and Caribbean communities have shaped Liverpool since its early origins and have formed the UK’s oldest and longest established Black communities going back generations to the 1730s. The conversations that took place during the sittings, rather than skirting around the mistreatment as documented around the Windrush Scandal, offers a new perspective on those seen as part of the Windrush Generation keen to show people how they are and how they want to be seen".
Ean moved to Liverpool from London over five years ago and the exhibition has taken him almost four years to complete, due to Covid-19 lockdown stopping much of his work. He’s been a photographer for more than 30 years and said: "I've always been interested in imagery and when aged 15, I got my first camera.
"It did not start to excel till I got into college and it went on from there. In the early 1990’s I did a postgraduate at London College of Printing doing professional Photography Practice.”.
He added: "Moving from London to Liverpool, I rarely saw people who looked like me in the heart of the city such as the Knowledge Quarter and the trendy Baltic area. In my first year of living in the city within the Georgian Quarter, I was racialised whilst taking pictures in the area, which ended up in an official complaint made by me. These events were part of the catalyst for the exhibition.
"For many of the sitters the recurring theme is resistance. As one sitter Ray Quarless states: ‘George Floyd happened two years ago, where all these radical changes are going on. We went through the uprisings in 1981. The only reason we got through it is our own self determination’.”
The free exhibition will run from January 28 to May 13, Tuesday to Saturday from 10am until 5pm.
For for more information visit Victoria Gallery & Museum HERE and Ean Flanders photography HERE
The countdown has officially started. Join our Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool Facebook group
READ NEXT
Once a great hope, Liverpool's Chinatown is at a dead end
Chinese New Year 2023 horoscopes predict difficult year for four signs
First picture of man murdered by 15-year-old boy
Households can apply for £400 off energy bills from this month
Cruise line rules state which clothes will 'not be allowed onboard'