John Blakemore
Chimney Sweep, Hillfields, Coventry, 1964
Gelatin Silver Print
29.5 x 24.1 cms
11 5/8 x 9 1/2 ins
11 5/8 x 9 1/2 ins
Series: Early work 1955 - 1968
14516
Provenance
John BlakemoreLiterature
John Blakemore, Photographs 1955-2010, Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2011 (illustrated full page p.25)
Image size: 19.9 x 19.0 cms Paper size: 29.5 x 24.1 cms Inscribed on the reverse: (top left) 3/6; (top right) 014 John Blakemore writes that “Hillfields, the area where...
Image size: 19.9 x 19.0 cms
Paper size: 29.5 x 24.1 cms
Inscribed on the reverse: (top left) 3/6; (top right) 014
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 Carribean. 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))
Paper size: 29.5 x 24.1 cms
Inscribed on the reverse: (top left) 3/6; (top right) 014
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 Carribean. 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))