Born in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica in 1945, photographer Armet Francis moved to London at the age of ten. His photographs of black children, taken when he was coming to the end of his own youth, reflect on the expectations placed on black people growing up in Britain during this period. The formal poses also recall the tradition of studio portraiture, which was a popular form of representation within Caribbean families before personal cameras became readily available. Francis continued to explore the theme of childhood in his project Children of the Black Triangle (1989), which focused on representing the lives of black children in Jamaica, Africa and Britain.

The V&A acquired nine photographs by Armet Francis as part of the Staying Power project. Photographs by his contemporaries Neil Kenlock and Charlie Phillips were also acquired as part of the 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.