For her long awaited second monograph, Liz Johnson Artur follows the legendary London club scene PDA and the community that created it.
This new publication is a timely glimpse into the spaces around which the London club night PDA was created. Documenting the community it birthed, this book captures the spirit and strength of various interwoven stories in the nuanced sensitive narrative that is Johnson Artur's photography.
Since its inception, PDA, established by Mischa Mafia, Ms. Carrie Stacks, Akinola Davies Jr and Siobhan Bell, prepared London's underground for a new wave of experimental Black and Brown queer club culture. Offering a space where joy, care, and self-expression could flourish, the Hackney-based function built a platform where raw talent could be celebrated.
Combining the glamour and the spirit of chaos that would ensue on any given night, PDA offered a world away from systems upheld in UK's patriarchal imperialism. At the function, liberation was not contained, as same day fashioned opulent wears, high-heels, and hair, were paraded to a soundtrack of experimental genre bending audio. A stairway for their wildest ideas.
PDA lives on as the principal reference point for many and catalyst that continues to maintain long-lasting connections. Johnson Artur's images—all shot in analogue—observe shared camaraderie, intimacy, anticipation of the night to come, as well as games people play to prolong its end.
Liz Johnson Artur (born 1964 in Bulgaria, lives and works in London) is an artist and photographer of Russian-Ghanaian origin, known for her work documenting the African diaspora worldwide. In 2021, she was awarded the Women In Motion prize for photography at the Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles, in recognition of her entire career.
