The need to record history is a driving force behind Burke's work. “I'm always aware of history in the making” he explains, “and particularly of a need to create and record a black cultural history.” Burke is also aware that his role is to encourage others to do this.

“Many black people-individuals, not artists or photographers, have private collections, archives in their homes, not just for personal use but with a social sense in mind. Many black people feel the need to document their social history.”

Perhaps this is a reaction to what Burke feels is still a very Eurocentric history taught in schools.

“The history taught at school is still from a European point of view” he explains. “It is rare that young black people see themselves from their point of view. I find it strange that people discussing a historical piece isolate the subject…no reference is made to the fact that blacks lived in the community at that time. I think there is a need for a more cohesive history, so people can see how they fit in and how they came to be here.”

I asked Burke if he felt creating such a distinct black history might alienate other cultural histories and risk deterring integration. His answer was determined.

“No, I don't think so. I'm able to show [other cultures] a little more intimacy, let them into the black community…the positives outweigh any negatives.” But, he adds, “cultures are very separate too, I cannot depict what isn't there.” He explains how at the recent memorial service for Charlene Ellis and Latisha Shakespear, killed in Birmingham in a gang shoot-out, 90% of the congregation were black. “I photograph what is there” he says, “but I do not feel black history excludes other cultures, it rather teaches them about other cultures.” His aim is to promote understanding.

For Burke it is essential that a photographer know their subject. “You can get closer if you know your subject…it's simply easier to get closer” he explains. No one could deny that this closeness has enabled Burke to capture a powerful honesty and lack of self-consciousness in his black subjects. Not that his work is without problems. He tells me of times he has had the camera pushed away, and how he has been told to leave. “But you mustn't be put off by threats” he explains, “you have to keep going”.

However, he is not deterred from moving away from the black community. He is very definite that his passion is for all people. Currently he is photographing the Asian community in Birmingham, but admits there are barriers.

“I'm trying to get to know the Asian community through photographing them. I haven't been able to get to anything really personal yet, weddings for instance. I have to push very hard. It's hard to get to the heart of it. There are so many aspects I have so little understanding of, so I am excluded. It's difficult to photograph something you are not part of, but the work is not necessarily not as successful.” He explains, “it's the affinity with the human being that you want to express, and so you need to make any person feel comfortable before you can take their photograph.”

Burke's most recent exhibition at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, ‘True Stories', re-examines his immense body of work.

“It was Peter Grego's brilliant idea to respond to my archive” he explains. “He wanted to look at the way my archive came about, and to examine the multiculturalism of the true stories. I wanted to use fragments of the stories, tear up the images, re-create the story.” “A work never stops, is never finished” he adds. “It is important to breathe new life into the archive”.

This is exactly what Burke's ‘Fragments' series, and his collaboration with artist Barbara Walker have done. Through the latter he has traced the subjects of his photographs, and Walker has uncovered a new set of true stories and personalities through her paintings of them. Through his ‘Fragments', Burke has dismantled his photographs and created new stories.

“I wanted to look at them again, but not in isolation…to examine the story in the photograph using different elements of history…different text based material, the bible, a recipe to make Jeools (an African dish)…elements of Afro-Caribbean, African, British black…to show the process of re-identification we have been through.”

These images express a sense of pride more blatantly than his earlier work, and a less rigid sense of what it means to be black in Britain. In their torn, dismantled, and re-formed states, these pieces express clearly the depth and richness of history which lies behind ‘being black' in Britain today.

Burke's current projects embrace a wide cross section of society. All have two things in common: humanity and social history. Anti-war demonstrations; the tenants of housing blocks in Birmingham; the mourners at the funeral of Charlene Ellis and Latisha Shakespear; the homeless. All feature in Burke's archive, and all have a place there. Many communities owe Burke a debt for recording their story.