Home Is Not A Place

Product Information

As I sat in admiration of how lucky I am to be able to witness such beauty, I couldn’t help but feel like I was being hugged. Home is where we are able to thrive, without the pressure to, in fact, home is a gentle voice saying, “Take your time, no pressure. They encountered Black British culture overlooked in official narratives, alongside the history of Empire and transatlantic slavery, to which every Briton is tethered. The recipient of the inaugural Ampersand/ Photoworks Fellowship, his photography has been exhibited at Foam (Amsterdam), E-Werk (Freiburg) and the Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago). The audience is invited to spend time, sit down, relax and contemplate the many facets of what constitutes a home.

These objects include a framed model, made by Pitts’ cousin Dean Rogan, titled ‘If Home was a Place: Johny Pitts’ childhood home’. Home could be a lone beach in the middle of nowhere, or a sun you’ve watched set over the same horizon all your life. Sometimes home is good food and good company, which could be a cob of maize and the company of ourselves. They travelled to document and respond to the many manifestations of black British culture, and to present an alternative to media narratives.The front and middle rooms of the gallery evoke the feeling of an open plan, communal area, bright and convivial, offering a space to chat and share ideas.

The stories captured in the film and the book echo across centuries of the black experience, transforming and illuminating the history of Britain. In 2021, acclaimed poet Roger Robinson and award-winning author and photographer Johny Pitts drove around the UK coast to find out what it is like to be black in Britain today if you live outside the urban metropolitan centres. Acclaimed poet Roger Robinson and award-winning author and photographer Johny Pitts have joined forces to explore this issue in their stunning new book, ‘Home Is Not A Place’. He is the lead vocalist and lyricist for King Midas Sound and has also recorded solo albums with Jahtari Records. Johny Pitts is the curator of the ENAR (European Network Against Racism) award-winning online journal ‘Afropean’ and the author of ‘Afropean: Notes From Black Europe’.Come and hear these tales, which echo across centuries of the black experience, transforming and illuminating the history of Britain. When most people think of home, they envision a structure, a shelter from the elements, a place where they run to for comfort and safety. It has been on show in Pitts’ hometown of Sheffield at the Graves Gallery, and at the Stills Gallery in Edinburgh. Which is why while sometimes it might take travelling the world to “find yourself”, you find that you’d been inside of yourself all along. He is lead vocalist and lyricist for King Midas Sound and has also recorded solo albums with Jahtari Records.