Birmingham families wanted for photography project celebrating region’s diverse history
Rangzeb Hussain
April 30, 2022
A photography project is calling on Brummies to send in family pictures, or to be photographed, to celebrate the diversity of Midlands individuals and families.
Organisers of the project are inviting everyone from across the region to share stories of their family and histories through their own family photographs, and also inviting families from different generations to be photographed.
The GENERATIONS photography project is searching for pictures that represent local people’s heritage, background, family stories and the diversity of the region and the many communities that make up the city of Birmingham and surrounding areas.
Grain Organisers are hoping that Brummies will search through their family photo albums and fish out pictures that feature two or more generations, or a set of pictures that may have been taken many years apart.
The resulting image archive will form a part of a large scale online community which celebrates the rich cultural diversity of Birmingham.
People can submit their pictures at the Grain online gallery and also share their family stories and memories.
Grain The heritage and diversity of Birmingham will also be celebrated with another project where families will be invited to be photographed by photographer Julian Germain.
Germain is seeking to work with four and five generation families from across Birmingham and the Black Country.
The first project of its kind in Birmingham and the Black Country, people are encouraged to take part in a four and five generation project and be photographed for exhibition during the Birmingham 2022 Festival, a six month celebration which will spotlight creativity and culture in the West Midlands as part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
What is GENERATIONS?
Grain GENERATIONS celebrates families, individuals, diversity and the people of Birmingham and the West Midlands in large-scale photographic portraiture.
Based on the format of the family portrait, the photographer will use a large format camera to work collaboratively with families of four and five generations from across the region.
The images will capture details designed to provoke questions about contemporary life and times.
Grain The group portraits present people at different stages of life; new-borns, infants, children, teens and their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents.
Fundamental questions are raised that relate to us all; life, death, time and the effects of time, where do we come from and where will we go?
The project will be exhibited large-scale in prominent spaces in the public realm, including on billboards, poster and exhibition sites in the region throughout the Birmingham 2022 Festival.
Grain Birmingham 2022 Festival, working with GRAIN Projects and Multistory, will present GENERATIONS, which will take place in Birmingham and the Black Country, in celebration of the city and region’s communities during the time of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Running from March to September 2022 as part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, the Birmingham 2022 Festival will feature hundreds of creative commissions across the region including art, photography, dance, theatre, digital art and more.
If you are interested in you and your family taking part and being photographed for GENERATIONS, please contact [email protected].
