Naomi Campbell joins leading black Britons in photography show

Naomi Campbell, Thandie Newton and Laura Mvula are among 37 black Britons whose portraits will go on show in a major exhibition.

The trio, with other familiar faces including Sir Trevor McDonald and Tinie Tempah, were all photographed by Simon Frederick for a BBC documentary, Black Is The New Black. In it, they discuss their experiences in the UK.

The 39 prints will go on show at the National Portrait Gallery in November next year. The collection is the largest acquisition of portraits of black Britons in the gallery’s history and was donated by Frederick after a donation from tech firm AOL. Other sitters included John Sentamu, the archbishop of York, and Homeland actor David Harewood.

Gallery director Dr Nicholas Cullinan said: “These striking portraits of black British sitters powerfully reflect the diversity and variety of contemporary British achievement in public life. The National Portrait Gallery is delighted to receive Simon Frederick’s very generous gift of photographs.”

Frederick will also speak at the gallery on Thursday, to mark Slavery Remembrance Day, about the effect one of its paintings, Benjamin Robert Haydon’s 1840 piece The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, had on his work.