FKA twigs and Getty Images aim to elevate the visual narrative of Black history with new initiative

FKA twigs and Getty Images have collaborated on an initiative that will see thousands of photographs of Black history made available for free and non-commercial use, with the aim of elevating the visual narrative of Black history. Getty Images will donate visual content from its Hulton Archive (the world’s largest privately held commercial archive) and Editorial Collections, to support Black storytellers, educators, content creators and not-for-profits in their work, hoping to better preserve and reflect on Black history. As part of the project, Getty Images will also provide research support for educational, research and mentoring initiatives focused on Black history at its Hulton Archive.

“It was the artist Kandis Williams who told me how much of our history was in the Getty Images Archive,” FKA twigs comments in a statement about her involvement. “We were discussing how powerful it would be to make this content available to Black creators and educators – enabling us to put these pieces together and make our history accessible for generations to come.”

Getty Images’ head of content Ken Mainardis says the company believes in the power of imagery to “change the world,” but to do so it believes it “must support Black content creators to tell more of the authentic stories of the global Black community. With this project we hope to empower Black content creators to tell their story of their own history, and to support storytelling as a weapon in the struggle for racial uplift”.

Getty will release more information in coming months; meanwhile it is issuing a callout to content partners who wish to offer content donations to get in touch.

Last month, FKA twigs released the video for her latest single Don’t Judge Me, directed by Black Is King co-creator Emmanuel Adjei. Starring prominent Black cultural figures including Black Lives Matter activist Solomon OB, writer Reni Eddo-Lodge, and mental health advocate Nicole Crentsil, the cast stood against a backdrop of Kara Walker’s Fons Americanus, an installation that explores the history of the slave trade and colonisation in the form of a four-tiered fountain.