Handsworth Self Portraits
Late summer 1979 in Handsworth, Birmingham, the summer after Britain reached rock-bottom in the ‘Winter of Discontent’. Mrs Thatcher had just won a massive landslide election, her first. In the afternoon light on Grove Lane, three photographers placed a camera (+ tripod, roll of backdrop and long cable-release) and let people make their own self-portraits…
The new BMagic website (the ‘under construction’ online catalogue for BM&AG) has all 44 pictures in the series.
Update, April 08: thanks to Dave Harte for pointing out in the comments that all 44 images are available, rather than just a selection, via the right URL.
Update, May 08: A new series of such photos, with Self Portrait Birmingham.
All 44 of them are there to view aren’t they? I used to work for Brian and he had some of the original prints in his office.
Bit more context here.
Dave
Comment by Dave Harte — Wed, 9th April 08 @ 11:35 pm
[...] Handsworth Self Portraits Taken in the summer 1979. (tags: photography handsworth) [...]
Pingback by Created in Birmingham » links for 2008-04-16 — Wed, 16th April 08 @ 6:36 am
I remember this, it was fab. Rhonda Wilson also did a series of women’s self portraits, same setup. I wonder what happened to those?
Comment by brendadada — Fri, 23rd May 08 @ 9:51 am
[...] » Welcome to Self Portrait Birmingham – "The Project is inspired by the original Handsworth Self Portrait of 1979 but updated with the latest digital technology." Via [...]
Pingback by Brum Link 23rd May | Birmingham: It’s Not Shit — Fri, 23rd May 08 @ 12:00 pm