October 17, 2025 |
Photographer Jennie Baptiste, whose work is the subject of the newly opened Jennie Baptiste: Rhythm & Roots at Somerset House, has shot some of the biggest figures in ‘90s hip-hop over her decades-long career. The Notorious B.I.G, Nas, Ms Dynamite and Estelle have all stood opposite her lens at varying stages in their careers. Baptiste shot Nas, for example, in 1995, a year after he released his debut album Illmatic – a record highly credited with the revival of the New York hip-hop scene. Estelle, on the other hand, was photographed by Baptiste a year before she released her first LP, The 18th Day…, which first established the American Boy singer as an upcoming star.
The depth of Baptiste’s archive is rare and speaks to the overarching theme of Rhythm & Roots – culture doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Marking the photographer’s first major solo exhibit, the display tracks the significance of the fashion, music and youth culture born from London’s Black British diaspora on the scenes and stars we know today. From the streets to the stage, Baptiste was there to capture it all.
Nas, 1995
“The selection was about balance,” says the exhibition’s curator Kinnari Saraiya, who worked collaboratively with Baptiste to organise the exhibition into three rooms, each adding a building block to construct an expansive view of the photographer’s practice.
Growing up in South London as the daughter of Windrush Generation parents, Baptiste’s default position was shooting the people around her, leading to work that features in the exhibition’s first room. A commentary on Baptiste’s work outside of artist photography, it highlights the importance of grassroots communities in the construction of culture. For example, Brixton Boyz, a series of street portraits shot by Baptiste in the ‘90s, showcases the local style of young Black men in South London at the time and the origins of low-slung silhouettes and overt fashion labels which became common attire for hip-hop artists in the years that followed.
“Like many other photographers, I am platforming what’s familiar and what I know,” says Baptiste of her themes and subjects. Starting photography from a young age, having fallen into it at school, means Baptiste’s portfolio was equally informed by shooting her peers as it was shooting musicians. “The selection highlights the dynamism in her practice,” says Saraiya of Baptiste’s ability to highlight how culture is an accumulation of many different people at different times, making something their own. Driving this home is a section in Room 1 that focuses on Baptiste’s documentation of tattoos and grillz across the years, and how they’ve come to represent heritage, resilience and empowerment for the Black community across time.
from left; Basketball cage, 2003, Brixton Boyz, 2001
After delving into Baptiste’s portraits of artists across the hip-hop and R&B scenes in the room that follows, the exhibition culminates in a room dedicated to Revolutions @ 33 1/3 rpm, a series documenting London’s hip-hop DJ scene in the late ‘90s. Presented as diptychs, the portraits document key figures in the scene, including MK, Semtex and Shortee Blitz. “I bought my first record when I was about 10 years old,” says Baptiste, whose history with record stores, specifically Deal Real, a Soho watering hole for UK hip-hop fans, led her to document the scene’s ebbs and flows. “I didn’t start photographing music artists professionally until much later, but as a teenager I would buy 12-inch records and get them signed,” says Baptiste. “When I’d go to signings, I’d bring along my 35mm camera and snap pictures. I took photographs of Nick Kamen at HMV, and the likes of Run-DMC and Five Star. Funnily enough, a few years back, I photographed Denise from Five Star, and told her how I’d taken a photograph of her as a teen at a signing.” This section also features a series of mixes created by each DJ, which feature music produced between 1989 and 2003, as a means of further immersing visitors in Baptiste’s world.
Launched as part of Somerset House’s 25th birthday programme, which focuses on bringing marginalised voices to the forefront of the cultural conversation, Baptiste was also commissioned to shoot portraits for the gallery’s Talent 25 initiative. A scheme that provides bursaries and professional support for young, innovative creatives, the portraits are available to view at different points throughout the exhibition. The icing on the cake, the portraits drive home the importance of preserving and creating space for art and artists who aren’t always uplifted in the mainstream. “I want people to leave the exhibition feeling creatively inspired, and to feel that anything is possible,” says Baptiste. “I also want [it] to start conversations, particularly between generations, because that inter-generational link is important to me, and it is something that can be easily lost. As a photographer, it’s really fulfilling if I’m able to attract a wide audience and demographic to my work, because this is where storytelling begins, and it is where sharing wisdom begins, and it is how we can empower and help the next generation on their journey.”
Jennie Baptiste: Rhythm & Roots is open from now until January 4, 2026, and operates on a pay-as-you-feel basis. Discover more and book your visit here.
Photography by Jennie Baptiste.
DJ Shortee Blitz (from Revolutions @ 33 ⅓ rpm), 1999
