John Blakemore. Early Work 1955-1968

Blakemore first started taking photographs in the mid 1950s while in Libya for his National Service.

In the early 1960s Blakemore lived in Hillfields in the early 1960's. At the time Hillfields was a place going through great change due to the imminent redevelopment of Victorian streets to make way for a school and tower blocks. Bomb damage and rubble remained on the streets for many years after the Blitz. We see this documentation of change in Blakemore's Hillfields series.

During the 1960s he worked as a studio photographer in Coventry and then for a year in Oxford Street in London.