Jennie Baptiste’s photographs explore fashion and style as expressions of black British identity, often with a focus on music culture. She was born in Northwest London in 1971, after her parents moved to the city from the St. Lucia in the 1960s.

Ragga music originated in Jamaica in the 1980s, building on dancehall and reggae styles by using electronic music and sampling linked to both hip hop and dance music trends. The music style became popular in Britain during the 1990s when it was increasingly fused with hip hop. The influence of Ragga is credited with popularising dancehall music with which it shares many features, including styles of dancing and female dress.

Female ragga dancers typically wear elaborate, colourful costumes, which are often hand-embellished. The dance styles include ‘Bogle’; a dance move created by the Jamaican dancehall star Gerald ‘Bogle’ Levy (1964-2005) in the 1990s. Bogle involves moving the body in a rolling, wave-like motion whilst leaning back and also raising the arms up and down in a similar circular motion. The dance move was one of the first crossover styles to gain international popularity outside of the dancehall scene, which is partly the result of its use in the more modern style of ragga music.

The V&A acquired four photographs by Jennie Baptiste 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.