Always Forward
Birmingham, known as the second city, is located in the Midlands. The city has a population of 1.145 million. Birmingham played a crucial role in the industrial revolution. The celuloid for photographic film was invented here, along with the electric kettle and the Balti. British Bhangra and Heavy metal were born here. The first cotton mills, the first steam engines, the first plastics, the first building societies, the first technical schools, the first red brick university, the first municipal art schools and concert halls, the football league, the first patient-controlled pacemaker, fantasy fiction, all Birmingham.
In Jane Austen’s 1815 novel Emma, the character Mrs Elton remarks on some recent acquaintances. “They came from Birmingham, which is not a place to promise much, you know, Mr Weston. One has no great hopes of Birmingham. I always say there is something direful in the sound.”
It is the city my grandparents made their home when they emigrated from Cyprus to the UK. I didn’t grow up here but having lived here many years I spend much of my time in the city wandering with a camera. A city constantly in flux, a network of interactions and layers, the seemingly static streets and architecture, the interplay between the natural and the built environment and the people that navigate it.
In the roughly two years making these photographs, I didn’t look to understand or survey the city, only to make some personal record of my wanderings in my city. What I found while reflecting on these images were complex layers of themes and subjects. These photographs, the last of which were made in early 2020, prior to the onset of the global pandemic, seem now to take on a different role as a document of another time.
Always Forward
[Second Edition]
Details:
200mm x 270mm
100 pages / Perfect Bound
115gsm Recycled Uncoated
GF Smith Bright Red 270gsm cover 130gsm Cairn Straw Cream
Printed Dust Jacket
Design by Andreas Neophytou
Text by Camilla Smith
OOP20 2024
BUY
Birmingham, known as the second city, is located in the Midlands. The city has a population of 1.145 million. Birmingham played a crucial role in the industrial revolution. The celuloid for photographic film was invented here, along with the electric kettle and the Balti. British Bhangra and Heavy metal were born here. The first cotton mills, the first steam engines, the first plastics, the first building societies, the first technical schools, the first red brick university, the first municipal art schools and concert halls, the football league, the first patient-controlled pacemaker, fantasy fiction, all Birmingham.
In Jane Austen’s 1815 novel Emma, the character Mrs Elton remarks on some recent acquaintances. “They came from Birmingham, which is not a place to promise much, you know, Mr Weston. One has no great hopes of Birmingham. I always say there is something direful in the sound.”
It is the city my grandparents made their home when they emigrated from Cyprus to the UK. I didn’t grow up here but having lived here many years I spend much of my time in the city wandering with a camera. A city constantly in flux, a network of interactions and layers, the seemingly static streets and architecture, the interplay between the natural and the built environment and the people that navigate it.
In the roughly two years making these photographs, I didn’t look to understand or survey the city, only to make some personal record of my wanderings in my city. What I found while reflecting on these images were complex layers of themes and subjects. These photographs, the last of which were made in early 2020, prior to the onset of the global pandemic, seem now to take on a different role as a document of another time.
Always Forward
[Second Edition]
Details:
200mm x 270mm
100 pages / Perfect Bound
115gsm Recycled Uncoated
GF Smith Bright Red 270gsm cover 130gsm Cairn Straw Cream
Printed Dust Jacket
Design by Andreas Neophytou
Text by Camilla Smith
OOP20 2024
BUY
