“Albert’s photographs, largely rendered in black and white, radiate an unrelenting sense of celebration, where local community events
re-centered the ‘Black is Beautiful’ movement of 1960’s America within a British context. While they adopt conventional markers of pageantry, these contests existed to champion a markedly different beauty ideal to that which was expounded elsewhere in mid-century Britain, creating spaces in which a new generation of young black women could affirm their identity.” Text by Monique Todd via AnOther Mag (2016)
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Holley modeling jewelry at Blythe Road, Hammersmith, London, early 1970s, from the portfolio of 'Black Beauty Pageants’ by Raphael Albert.