Rhythm & Roots: Jennie Baptiste’s Lens on Black British Brilliance
Words by Blend London Editorial
This autumn, Somerset House marks its 25th anniversary with a landmark exhibition that pulses with basslines, street style, and generational memory. Rhythm & Roots is the first major solo show by Jennie Baptiste—a London-born photographer whose work has, for over three decades, captured the soul of Black British youth culture.
Raised in the capital by Saint Lucian parents, Baptiste came of age in the early ’90s, when hip-hop, R&B, and dancehall weren’t just genres—they were lifelines. Her camera became a witness to the everyday icons of this era: the kids on the block, the rising MCs, the dancers who turned pavements into stages. “I wanted to show us as we are,” she’s said elsewhere. “Not as the media framed us, but as we lived.”
The exhibition unfolds across three rooms, each a chapter in a story that spans continents and decades. From raw portraits of global rap royalty to intimate glimpses of UK garage pioneers, Baptiste’s images are both documentary and dreamscape. One standout sequence captures a young ragga dancer mid-spin—part of her long-running Dancehall series that celebrates movement as resistance, joy, and identity.
Elsewhere, we find Brixton Boyz (1998), a love letter to South London swagger, and Black Chains of Icon (1993), a student-era experiment in lith prints and cultural memory. The latter weaves together visual symbolism and historical quotes, anchoring Black British identity in a lineage that stretches far beyond the frame.
Music, of course, is everywhere. The second room is a who’s who of transatlantic sound: Nas in a London kitchen, Ms Dynamite in her prime, Estelle and Ty before the world caught on. These aren’t just portraits—they’re time capsules. Baptiste worked with what she had: three rolls of film, a tired artist, a borrowed space. And yet, the results are electric.
The final room, Revolutions @ 33 1/3 rpm, pays homage to the DJs who built the scene from the ground up. Shot in diptychs, each pairing reveals both the face and the frequency: decks, graffiti, vinyl sleeves, and the quiet intensity of those who shaped the soundtrack of a generation. Visitors can even slip on headphones and hear mixes curated by the featured DJs, spanning the golden years of 1989 to 2003.
More than an exhibition, Rhythm & Roots is a mixtape of memory. It’s the smell of record shops in summer, the thrill of a new 12-inch, the echo of a bassline that still moves you. And with live events featuring legends like DJ Shortee Blitz and DJ Pogo, it’s also a bridge—between past and present, archive and dancefloor.
Jennie Baptiste doesn’t just take pictures. She builds portals. And this autumn, Somerset House becomes one.
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Rhythm & Roots runs at Somerset House through the end of the season. For more info: somersethouse.org.uk #BlendLondon #RhythmAndRoots #JennieBaptiste #BlackBritishCulture #StreetStyleStories #LondonNow
