The Hive in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter: 45 Vittoria Street, B1 3PE (November 8th 2021 through January 7th 2022)
This installation exhibition was originally shown in 1979 at the Photographers’ Gallery in London. These are the original vintage prints and an adapted version of the original installation. I was very excited to discover that the 250 photographes lasted the 40 + years of storage.
It was an amazing opportunity to bring the photographs back to the West Midlands where they were taken and also to re-connect with those I photographed back in the late 1970s. Below are some links to reviews plus one to Andy Conway’s memories of being photographed as a schoolboy waiting for his dad to end his shift at the forge in 1978.
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45th year reunion with the Forge workers on the last afternoon of the exhibition.
They are coal miners working in a Staffordshire colliery where Janine Wiedel photographed them during a 2 year West Midlands Arts funded residency (between 1977 and 1979) documenting the rhythm, feel and grain of life in industrial workplaces across the region. Alongside them, arranged thematically by industry and geographical location, are portraits of workers and workplaces engaged in many other long established, world renown West Midlands trades. Stoke-on-Trent and north Staffordshire more widely, is represented by its potters and steelmakers as well as the miners. The Black Country by Cradley Heath’s chainmakers and workers from Bilston’s steelworks. Birmingham enters the frame through a fascinating juxtaposition between the careful skill and precision of workers…
Janine Wiedel photo Blog 