Neil Kenlock

Neil Emile Elias Kenlock (born 1950) is a Jamaican-born photographer and media professional who has lived in London since the 1960s. During the 1960s and 1970s, Kenlock was the official photographer of the British Black Panthers, and he has been described as being "at the forefront of documenting the black experience in the UK". Kenlock was co-founder of Choice FM, the first successful radio station granted a licence to cater for the black community in Britain. Background and career Neil Kenlock was born in 1950 Port Antonio, Jamaica, where he was raised by his grandmother until 1963, when he migrated to London to join his parents who had settled in Brixton. As a youth in south London he captured in photographs the lives of the local community as well as becoming known for portraits taken on family occasions, his work as a whole coming to represent an exploration of many aspects of black British culture and history. After working for photographic studios, in 1973 he became a staff photographer for West Indian World, one of the first national black British newspapers. In his first two decades as a professional photographer he specialised in fashion, beauty, celebrities and the cultural lifestyles of Black Britons. Also noted for his street photography, during the late 1960s and the 1970s Kenlock became involved with the British Black Panther movement, becoming the group's official photographer and documenting anti-racist protests and demonstrations in the UK. In 1979, Kenlock co-founded the pioneering Black lifestyle magazine Root ("A British Ebony, only more connected to how people live in Britain"), published until 1987, and he subsequently became co-founder of Choice FM, which was the UK's first radio station broadcasting to the black community.