Request to view

This object can be requested via email from the Prints & Drawings Study Room

We don’t have an image of this object online yet.

More about images

V&A Images may have a photograph that we can’t show online, but it may be possible to supply one to you. Email us at vaimages@vam.ac.uk for guidance about fees and timescales, quoting the accession number: E.312-2013

The Harder They Come

Photograph
c.1970s (photographed), 2012 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Grenadian born photographer Raphael Albert (1935-2009) was committed to celebrating the growing black population in Britain. Whilst living in Hammersmith, West London he began to organise and photograph a host of black beauty pageants from the 1960s to the 1980s, mostly targeted at women from the British Caribbean community.

Prizes for winning contestants often included music records. The woman on the corner of the makeshift stage displays the Jimmy Cliff record ‘The Harder They Come’ released in 1972, which accompanied the Jamaican crime film of the same name starring Cliff. Both the film and the music it featured helped to popularise reggae music in Britain, showing the mainstream success of Caribbean culture.

The V&A acquired seven of Albert’s photographs documenting beauty pageants and the British Caribbean community in London as part of the Staying Power project. Staying Power is a five year partnership between the V&A and Black Cultural Archives. The project aims to explore black British experience from the 1950s to the 1990s through photographs acquired by the V&A and oral histories conducted by Black Cultural Archives.

Delve deeper

Discover more about this object
read Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience Working in partnership with Black Cultural Archives, we identified and acquired photographs taken by black photographers, or which document the lives of black people in Britain, taken between the 1950s – 90s.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • The Harder They Come (generic title)
  • Black Beauty Pageants (series title)
Materials and techniques
Gelatin silver fibre-based print
Brief description
Photograph by Raphael Albert, 'The Harder They Come', from the portfolio Black Beauty Pageants, gelatin silver print, Hammersmith, London, c. 1970s, printed 2012
Physical description
A black and white photograph of spectators surrounding a low stage area. In the centre of the crowd there is a woman sitting on the edge of the stage wearing a satin wrap dress and bangles, she holds the Jimmy Cliff record 'The Harder They Come with the sleeve removed sitting behind her arm. The central woman and some of the crowd look upwards, out of the frame, but one man on her left wearing large aviator sunglasses looks directly out of the frame.
Dimensions
  • Image width: 281mm
  • Image height: 280mm
  • Paper width: 305mm
  • Paper height: 405mm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
(Autograph ABP stamped on verso)
Gallery label
  • Raphael Albert (1935 – 2009) The Harder They Come Untitled Miss Black & Beautiful Beauty Salon Untitled Untitled From the series Black Beauty Pageants 1960 – 79 This series of photographs echoes the sentiment of the ‘Black is Beautiful’ movement, which started in America in the 1960s. The movement encouraged black people to embrace their natural beauty, especially their hair. Albert became interested in black British beauty pageants while working as a freelance photographer for the newspaper West Indian World. His photographs also explore the objectifying nature of pageants as beauty parades, where female contestants are judged on their physical rather than intellectual attributes. Gelatin silver prints (printed 2012) Museum nos. E.312 to 317-2013
  • Raphael Albert (1935 – 2009) Untitled Untitled The Harder They Come Beauty Salon Untitled Miss Black & Beautiful From the series Black Beauty Pageants 1960 – 79 This series of photographs echoes the sentiment of the ‘Black is Beautiful’ movement, which started in America in the 1960s. The movement encouraged black people to embrace their natural beauty. Albert became interested in black British beauty pageants while working as a freelance photographer for the newspaper West Indian World. He founded the Miss Teenager and Miss West Indies in Great Britain contests in 1974. He viewed the contests as a way of restoring confidence within his community. Gelatin silver prints (printed 2012) Museum nos. E.312 to 317-2013 (16/02/2015-24/05/2015)
Credit line
Supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund
Object history
The V&A acquired this photograph as part of the Staying Power project. Staying Power is a five year partnership between the V&A and Black Cultural Archives. The project aims to explore black British experience from the 1950s to the 1990s through photographs acquired by the V&A and oral histories conducted by Black Cultural Archives.
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Summary
Grenadian born photographer Raphael Albert (1935-2009) was committed to celebrating the growing black population in Britain. Whilst living in Hammersmith, West London he began to organise and photograph a host of black beauty pageants from the 1960s to the 1980s, mostly targeted at women from the British Caribbean community.

Prizes for winning contestants often included music records. The woman on the corner of the makeshift stage displays the Jimmy Cliff record ‘The Harder They Come’ released in 1972, which accompanied the Jamaican crime film of the same name starring Cliff. Both the film and the music it featured helped to popularise reggae music in Britain, showing the mainstream success of Caribbean culture.

The V&A acquired seven of Albert’s photographs documenting beauty pageants and the British Caribbean community in London as part of the Staying Power project. Staying Power is a five year partnership between the V&A and Black Cultural Archives. The project aims to explore black British experience from the 1950s to the 1990s through photographs acquired by the V&A and oral histories conducted by Black Cultural Archives.
Associated objects
Collection
Accession number
E.312-2013

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdFebruary 7, 2013
Record URL
Download as: JSON