BRIAN GRIFFIN ADDS THREE EXHIBTIONS TO HIS ARCHIVE AT THE LIBRARY OF BIRMINGHAM

Internationally acclaimed photographer, Brian Griffin, has added three of his major exhibitions to the substantial existing collection of his work held by the Library of Birmingham.The exhibitions, The Water People (2006) Team (2007), and The Black Country (2011), will be added to the existing collection of 37vintage exhibition prints acquired by the Library in 2010, and 30 prints from the 2003 project People and the City, shot to aid Birmingham’s bid to become a European City of Culture.

Team, which documents the people who worked on High Speed 1, the UK’s first high speed railway and The Water People, a corporate commission from Reyjavik Energy, an Icelandic geothermal energy company, were both shown in Birmingham in 2010 as part of a large retrospective project, Face to Face: Brian Griffin: a retrospective, alongside an outdoor exhibition of Brian’s fashion, music and corporate photography. The Black County, an intensely personal project, was inspired by the people Brian knew in the early years and the experiences of life in Lye. This was first shown at the College des Bernardins during the Mois de la Photo in Paris in 2010, then at the New Art Gallery Walsall in 2011 and most recently at the Arles-Beijing Photospring 2012 Festival in China.

In 2010 Brian was one of four photographers commissioned as part of Reference Works: The Library of Birmingham Photography project. In three shoots during 2011 Brian made over 40 portraits of people involved in this landmark project, from apprentices working on the site through to the architect’s who designed the new £188 million building. This work will be featured in a major exhibition and publication project staged to coincide with the opening of the Library in September 2013.

Pete James, Head of Photographs at the Library says:

“Its wonderful for us to be able to add these extraordinary exhibitions to our collections. Brian’s generosity has enabled us to create possibly the largest collection of his work in the world. It great to think that photographers, students and the public will be able to see this work in Birmingham and that we can help share it through loans to museums and galleries around the world.”

Brian Griffin says “I am so happy that my work sits safely within the collections of the New Central Library, their rightful home, the city of my birth”.

Brian Griffin photo by Jeremy Pardoe