Birmingham's People
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Birmingham Photospace presents
Birmingham's People
Pit and Café Bar at The Drum arts centre,
7th December 2009 - 29th January 2010 10am to 6pm
Admission Free
Artists' Talk Wednesday 7th December 2009, 7pm admission free but please register at http://birminghamspeople.eventbrite.com/
URL for publication: http://www.birminghamphotospace.co.uk/
Birmingham Photospace presents Birmingham's People, a collection of photographs of the people of Birmingham taken over one weekend.
This collective portrait of the city comprises 170 people who had their picture taken by local photographers Matt Murtagh and Jennifer Peel during the weekend of the Birmingham ArtsFest, earlier this year. From 7th December 2009 until 29th January 2010, all 170 photographs will be on show at The Drum. The Artists' Talk on 9th December will also feature some short filmed interviews with some of the participants.
The study gives an extraordinary vision of the second city, clearly showing its diversity but also hinting at its personality.
With an average of only seven minutes to take each picture, the photographers were only given a short time to establish rapport with, and judge the boundaries of, their sitters. Photographer Matt Murtagh said: ‘One of the hardest jobs for a portrait photographer is to get beneath the smiley “photo face” that people naturally pull if a camera is placed in front of them. Many of the shots chosen for this exhibition are not posed-for photographs, but the pictures taken just before or after a pose; attempts to get “underneath the mask”.’
A selection of 15 “spotlight” images will be displayed as large photographic prints in the exhibition, with the remaining images presented on a photo wall.
–ENDS–
Press queries: liz@birminghamphotospace.co.uk
Notes to editors:
1. Birmingham Photospace is seeking to set up a gallery and support space for photographers of national/ international repute. Via regular events like this, the group hopes to build awareness of the opportunities that exist in Birmingham as a visitor destination, and as a place to capitalise on photography as a career. http://www.birminghamphotospace.co.uk
2. Thanks are given to the Drum for their support in hosting this event. Based in Aston, The Drum is Birmingham's national centre for Black British culture and arts. http://www.the-drum.org.uk
3. ArtsFest is Birmingham's annual free arts festival which took place this year from 11th – 13th September. More than 270,000 people visited ArtsFest events across the city centre during the festival. http://www.artsfest.org.uk
