Mat Collishaw was commissioned to research and produce work in response to the photography archive at the Library of Birmingham. After a dedicated research period, he created a new edition of his work available for purchase.

Known for his alluring, poetic, and shocking creations that explore themes from history and religion, often delving into the darker aspects of nature and human character, Collishaw’s visually diverse language captivates audiences. With a keen interest in the history of photography, its subjects, techniques, and machinery, he frequently references historical periods, particularly the Victorian era. The invitation to respond to the rich archive of the earliest photography at the Library of Birmingham aligns seamlessly with his artistic pursuits.

Born in Nottingham in 1966, Collishaw’s artistic journey began at Goldsmiths College of Art. His reputation was solidified with his participation in the legendary Freeze exhibition in 1988, where he exhibited the celebrated Bullet Hole. Over the past decade, his confrontational and challenging works have been showcased in numerous solo exhibitions globally, including notable venues like the Cohen Gallery in New York, Camden Arts Centre in London, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

This co-commission was a collaboration between GRAIN, Library of Birmingham, and The New Art Gallery Walsall.

Image Credit: The Poisoned Page, 2013 – C-type photograph

In 2014 GRAIN worked in collaboration with the Library of Birmingham and Division of Labour to show work at UNSEEN Photo Fair, Amsterdam.  Cornford & Cross, Andrew Lacon, and Stuart Whipps made new work for the international photography fair which is dedicated to new and emerging talent.  The exhibition encouraged viewers, collectors, the public, and the market to transcend the image and perceive photography as a medium beyond conventional boundaries. The project was curated by Nathanial Pitt, known as AFTER THE IMAGE, and was part of an Art Market Development project supported by Birmingham City University and Arts Council England, taking place from September 18 to 21, 2014, at Amsterdam Westergasfabriek.

GRAIN recognized the importance of investing in the region’s photography infrastructure and cultivating enablers and connectors with influence within the photography community. In collaboration with consultant Lara Ratnaraja, a Business Development Project was developed to engage beneficiaries in focused efforts to enhance their existing business competencies and ensure future growth and sustainability. This specialised initiative aligned with GRAIN’s objectives for high-quality activity, collaboration, and impact.

The initial three beneficiaries of this program included Karen Newman, who received support for the creation and development of BOM, Birmingham Loves Photographers, which received assistance in business development and fundraising, and SQUARE, which received support for business development and the expansion of their exhibition program.

Image: Square Magazine – Patricia van de Camp; Urban

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS’ WALL has been developed as a space in the Library of Birmingham dedicated to photography and photographers.

Launched in January 2014 the space will feature the works of emerging and established fine art photographers and will highlight the ambition and talent of some of the regions best photographers.

For more details of the forth show featured on The Photographers’ Wall, new work by artist Lucy Hutchinson, click here. The body of work is the result of a residency undertaken at The Library of Birmingham, awarded by Turning Point West Midlands.

From the 25th of February to the 29th of April 2015 the fifth exhibition to feature on The Photographers Wall will be on display. For more information about 5 Plus 5 click here.

GRAIN was delighted to be one of the partners in ‘The Black Kingdom’ by Brian Griffin, published by Dewi Lewis.

Recognised as one of the UK’s most important photographers of the last fifty years, Brian Griffin grew up near Birmingham amongst the factories of the Black Country. His parents were factory workers and from birth Griffin seemed set to follow in their footsteps. And so, on leaving school at the age 16, he began working in a factory, just like everyone else around him. A year later he moved to British Steel working as a trainee pipework engineering estimator in a job that involved costing systems for the nuclear power stations that were then being built. He remained there four years before escaping the tedium of the office by enrolling to study photography at Manchester College of Art.

The Black Kingdom is a visual autobiography of Brian Griffin’s life during the 1950s and 60s where everything surrounding him seemed to emanate from the factory. The book is a dissection of life in industrial England after the Second World War and shows the influences that would inspire the creative output of a highly successful photographer. For Griffin, those first 21 years living in a warren of terraced streets set amongst factories and continually polluted by their smells and noise, remain indelibly printed on him and have shaped the person he is.

Brian Griffin has exhibited and published widely. In 1989 he had a one-man show at the National Portrait Gallery, London. The same year The Guardian newspaper selected him as ‘The Photographer of the Decade’ and LIFE magazine used his photograph ‘A Broken Frame’ as the covershot for their feature ‘Greatest Photographs of the Eighties’. During the 1990s Brian Griffin retired from photography and focused on directing advertising, pop videos and short films. He returned to photography in 2001, reestablishing himself once again at the pinacle of British Photography.

Purchase the book here.

GRAIN commissioned internationally acclaimed artist and photographer Tom Hunter  to make a new body of work in Birmingham finding, exploring and revealing places and spaces in Colmore Business District and the Jewellery Quarter.

Tom Hunter said of the commission;   ‘’For me this project is a journey back into the country’s industrial heritage and at the same time a personal journey into my own history. Many of the buildings I have photographed are monuments to this industrial past, showing us the fingerprints of working lives and the products that these endeavours created and from them a way of life and culture. I have always been attracted to these shrines from a disappearing world, a world my grandfather was meshed too, with his engineering company in Birmingham. A world I have explored through photography in Hackney Wick, where the industrial landscape became a playground for the dispossessed, and is now reincarnated as an Olympic wonderland.

All these elements have aligned themselves in this photographic essay, connecting my history to my country’s and Birmingham to Hackney. In the same way Alexander Parkes of Birmingham invented Parkesine, the base material of my film and took it to Hackney Wick to be mass-produced, I now take my pinhole photography back in time to Birmingham, to illuminate and document this very special place.”

Hunter employed a pinhole camera to make the work which had an intensity and painterly quality with dramatic dark and light been a key feature. The work was exhibited as a largescale outdoor exhibition in April – July 2013 across two city squares in Birmingham city centre