The Victoria Gallery & Museum is proud to present the first major exhibition by Ean Flanders, an award-winning portrait and social documentary photographer based in Liverpool. The Descendants is the culmination of a four-year project photographing people with links to Liverpool who are high achievers in their respective spheres. Some are well-known, others renowned within their field, but all are of African Diaspora heritage, as is Ean. 

Liverpools role as a key port for the Transatlantic Slave Trade fuelled rapid growth during the 1700s and into the 1800s, shaping it towards the city we know today.  It’s no coincidence that Liverpool has the UK’s longest established Black community dating back to the 1730s, with people arriving here from Africa and the Caribbean as sailors, servants, as free individuals or enslaved. The Windrush Generation, arriving in the post-war years from Caribbean countries to help rebuild Britain, greatly bolstered Liverpool’s Black community. Ean’s project pays tribute to The Descendants of Africa diaspora heritage: who they are, their achievements and their lived histories.