Isaac Julien

Victoria Miro Gallery, London

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2005

Christine Van Assche, Elvan Zabunyan and Françoise Vergès, Issac Julien, Paris, 2005, p. 48 (another example illustrated)

The present photograph was taken by Isaac Julien as part of his audiovisual installation True North in 2004. Shot in Iceland and Sweden, the work is an allegorical retelling of the story of Matthew Henson, the first recorded person to reach the North Pole who was also African American. Henson was hired by officer Robert E. Peary in the early 1890s and spend the next eighteen years on Artic explorations led by Peary. Most famously, he participated in the North Pole expedition of 1908-09 that claimed to be the first to have reached the geographic North Pole. Upon their return, Perry was awarded a hero's welcome, granted the rank of admiral and eventually buried with full honours. Yet Henson's invaluable contribution to the voyage, especially through his command of Inuit languages and sledging skills, went unnoticed. He spend the next thirty years working as a clerk in the New York Customs House, was three times refused a pension by Congress and was later buried in a small plot in the Bronx. Despite belatedly achieving some recognition by becoming a honorary member of The Explorers Club at the age of 70, Henson's endeavors went largely uncredited during his lifetime. With True North, Julien reimagines Henson's story in an attempt to shine a light on his achievements which were mainly overlooked due to the lack of exposure associated with racial prejudice.