Family photos now a record of Black community in K-W
Using his grandfather’s photos, a Kitchener man brings Black history alive on social media and in gallery exhibits
WATERLOO REGION — After exhibitions in Toronto and Waterloo, Aaron Francis has big plans for his late grandfather’s family photographs that document Black culture in the region going back to 1965.
After posting hundreds of photographs on the Instagram account vintage black canada, Francis is curating the massive collection for more exhibitions and is looking for a book publisher.
There were six black families in K-W when Roy Francis and his family moved to Waterloo in 1965. He worked at Raytheon and Com-Dev. He played the saxophone and was among the founders of Caribbean cultural associations in the region.
He was also a photographer who created a rich, visual legacy of Black life in this area.
Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, Roy immigrated to Leeds, England, in the 1950s and was inspired by the work of photographer Gerald Donne, who documented the Jamaican community in that city.
Roy collected many of Donne’s pictures and emulated the English photographer when he moved here. After Roy passed in 2018, Francis inherited his grandfather’s records and photographs.
Roy’s photographs make up about 85 per cent of the Instagram account and exhibitions. The other 15 per cent are pictures provided by Francis’s uncles and other Black families.
“I have gone out of my way to source from other families because I think it is important,” said Francis. “Because it is not a vanity project, it is a community project.”
Non-white immigration was rare in Canada during the mid-1960s. Domestic servants were about the only Jamaicans allowed in but Roy was able to bring his family here because he was already in England and had acquired aeronautical engineering skills that were needed in the region’s budding tech sector.
His pictures show Columbia Lake, Chandler Drive, King Street East, Lennox Lewis, high school musicians, families dressed in their Sunday best, families swimming at the beach, birthday parties and graduations. There are several pictures of Francis’s uncle, Errol Starr, a musician who won a Juno in 1989.
Toronto galleries started reaching out after Francis started posting his carefully selected images to Instagram in 2019. The Art Gallery of Ontario wanted the Super-8 home movies.
“It has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Francis. “Right away, within a week of posting images, I was being contacted by Black creatives locally and in Toronto.”
Within a month he had his first solo exhibit in Toronto.
In 2019, he exhibited in the Gladstone Hotel gallery on Queen Street West in Toronto. He was part of a panel during the Contact Festival in Toronto talking about photography books. In January 2020, he had a solo exhibit in Toronto’s Black Artists’ Network in Dialogue (BAND) Gallery. Last February he had a show at CIGI.
“Before the age of 10, I already knew Jamaicans could do anything.” AARON FRANCIS CURATOR
“That was my first solo show in Waterloo Region,” said Francis.
Two other shows at Communitech and Kitchener City Hall were delayed by the pandemic. He has an exhibit coming up at the University of Waterloo Art Gallery this spring.
“Most recently I received a grant from the Waterloo Region Arts Fund to ask other visual artists to reinterpret selected images from the archive,” said Francis.
Trish Abe and others created paintings based on the photographs.
Every Instagram post has detailed information about the photographs.
“I try my best to establish providence of the images because I consider them fine art, and I want to publish a book one day,” said Francis. “I try my best to keep all the information accurate.”
Francis remains close to his uncle Errol and documents his story with the photographs. Errol had a high school band in Kitchener in the 1970s called “Phaze” and went on to a recording career with AMC.
“He was the like The Weeknd of the Eighties, but nobody knows who he is anymore, and he is so sexy,” said Francis.
With beaded-dreads, colourful clothes and a green Corvette, Errol cut a striking figure in Kitchener. Francis remembers the day he came to Chandler Drive to visit the family and show them his Juno.
Francis is a busy PhD student, consultant and curator. He was one of the organizers of the massive Black Lives Matter march through downtown Kitchener last June and remains active in the movement. Working with his grandfather’s photographs turned into a journey of self-discovery.
“I made perfect sense to myself, all of a sudden,” said Francis.
His grandfather worked hard, spent time with family, friends and community, and kept meticulous records of his photographs and music.
“My uncle, when he won the Juno in ’89 that was right after Lennox Lewis had won the gold medal for Canada. Messenjah had also won a Juno in ’89, and Tony Young-Master T was making his debuts on Xtendamix, becoming a Canadian Black media pioneer influencing Moses Znaimer,” said Aaron.
“All these people came from Kitchener,” he added. “So, before the age of10, I already knew Jamaicans could do anything.”