We”ll be back in Handsworth on June 5th at the Library to run a session with Kieran Connell from Birmingham University – see http://inbirmingham.wordpress.com/

Hope to see some old and new faces there – here’s the flyer:

Its 30 years since Derek, John and I were planning Handsworth Self Portrait so when Kieran Connell came to see me this week about his micro-history of Handsworth it set the memory going.

He brought a copy of David Attie’s book Russian Self-Portraits with him and we talked about the influence that had had on us. Derek and I reckon we only saw one image from that set – probably in an early issue of Camerawork. So I set to on the web to see if I could find copies of Attie’s book. I also fished out my old Cameraworks but I am missing the crucial copy so back on the net I found a copy of issue 10 Portraits which may be the one. The upshot is that I have three copies of RSP coming – one for each of the three HSP organisers plus the Camerawork.

Talking to Derek later he reminded me that Irving Penn was another influence so I set off again and mistakenly went for his Dahomey images when the real influence was Worlds in a Small Room. He went round the world on assignment for Vogue armed with a tent and a backdrop. His striking images have a lovely flat light which we thought we could use effectively. I find his project somewhat disturbing – a little too reminiscent of the anthropological images from earlier photographers with an apparent distance between the photographer and his subjects.

I ended up buying a copy of Worlds in a Small Room from an internet bookseller in Bridport and its was only when we called me to offer me a good deal that I realised that he was John Taylor who was one of the founders of Ten 8 and who was around working in Stourbridge when we did HSP.

The book I have bought from him is his personal copy so might conceivably be the actual book we saw when we were planning the shoots. Small world indeed.

Brian Homer