Handsworth Self Portrait was a project by Derek Bishton, Brian Homer and John Reardon. Based in their then office at 81 Grove Lane, Handsworth, Birmingham UK they set up a backdrop outside the front of the building and invited passers-by to take their own photograph using a long cable release.
We did five sessions over the late summer and autumn of 1979 and many local people and friends took part.
The original photographs were edited down to 44 images (see below) and exhibited at The Triangle Gallery in Birmingham, Holyhead School, the Untitled Gallery Sheffield and more. In 2019 to mark the 40th Anniversary they were also in a show at Mac Birmingham as well as being part of the Blast! Photo Festival in Sandwell.
In 2024/25 10 of the photographs were also part of a show of 80’s British photography at Tate Britain in London.
In 2024 we were very pleased that the Bodleian Library in Oxford took into their collections the bulk of the Handsworth Self Portrait Archives. This included notebooks, organisation and financial information, publicity posters, press cuttings, the original negatives and very importantly a very full set of more than 200 matched scans and prints. We are grateful to the Bodleian for supporting the project and funding the scan matching and printing.
The Handsworth Self Portrait Book
The set of scans we now have access to means that we can plan to finally publish a book so watch this space. We are talking to a respected photobook publisher and are planning to get this book out in 2026 if at all possible. The book will contain more images than the original 44 – including many that have never neen published before. This will involve a Kickstarter fundraising effort which we will be sharing as soon as it is ready to go. In the meantime plese sign up for our mailing list so we can send you the Kickstarter information.
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