John Blakemore writes that “Hillfields, the area where I lived and worked. Taylor Bros. Studios; my first experience of running a studio. Cameras of large and surprising dimension, sheet film, painted backdrops and balustrades, white-painted steps. Portraits and weddings, photographs of celebration, of family events. Images for the growing immigrant communities to send home. To India, To Pakistan, to the Caribbean. Full length portraits, new suits indicative of wealth, working clothes to show how hard life was. Every possible permutation of the family, parents, children, aunts and uncles. Hillfields, an area still bearing the scars of war. An area of mean dilapidated houses, of poverty and deprivation, of striving and hope. Yet still, before the eruption of high rise and rehousing, a community. Hillfields, where, away from the studio I could walk familiar streets, could photograph the people, the shops and houses, visit schools and places of worship, could attempt to document an area in transition.” (John Blakemore, Photographs 1955-2010, Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2011 (p20))