What a remarkable event to have attended before the opening to the public, A Private Viewing invitation to celebrate the completion of an exhibition about Birmingham, "The Birmingham Grid Project – In Search of Urban Happiness."
The event took place at Birmingham Central Library on Level 3 at The Gallery on Friday 24th January 2025 at 7pm.
This exciting new exhibition, an idea created by Dave Allen (pictured) , comprising of photos, poems and prose about Birmingham city, by proud residents of the city, is now open to the general public from 25th January and will be open until 12th April 2025.
All the attendees were greeted by wine and chilled water on ice. As all the contributors to the project, took the chance to greet each other, they waited in anticipation for the event to be officially announced and celebrated.
Whilst, we waited I had the pleasure of meeting Simon "Mac" MacCreery and David Moore, two of the 47 contributors and Ian Henery the poet. Ian’s admiration of David’s work resulted in deciding to follow David the photographer around Birmingham whilst he took photos. Ian would then write a poem for every photograph as part of the collaboration. This resulted in a body of work consisting of 28 new poems.
"I have long been an admirer of David`s photography" explained Ian "and I could not resist the chance of working with David again. It also felt good to be working with Simon "Mac" MacCreery again because I had been with him in Walsall Musicians Collective in the misty past of 1987 when he was in a band. He wrote poems back in those days and he was an inspiration."
David had described how the community of Birmingham has grown into a marvellous community. Considering that it was the second heaviest bombed city in the United Kingdom, his comprehension and explanation of how the city has shaped itself post war, was enlightening.
Tom Epps, the Senior Library Services Manager at the Library of Birmingham, explained that the Photographic Collection has over three million photos in its archives ranging from the mid nineteenth century to the present. Among these, the Warwickshire Survey collection is a tradition continued by The Grid Project in a poignant way, capturing moments in time, that have changed or evolved.
Tom introduced Dave Allen to take the floor. Dave Allen welcomed everyone to the private viewing and mentioned that this project was running simultaneously as The Grid Project in Halifax.
The Birmingham Grid Project was born two years ago after a meeting cemented the idea that the project would take a new direction as the projects previously had always been map-based. The actual project, Dave clarified, consisted of over 3500 photos. This exhibition proudly included 47 ‘contributors’ from the locality. Together the outcome was 3631 photos and 262 pieces of poetry, although only a selection are on display for the public to see. A selection of the photographs and pieces of writing will be featured in a hard back book later in the year. It will not be on sale to the public, but will be available to contributors and others who would like a copy. The Grid Project makes no money from the sales of the books and that the price purely covers the cost of publication.
He continued to thank everyone who had contributed to these projects from 2007 onwards, particularly the photography, writing contributors and specialised support, without which, these types of projects certainly would not be possible. His words seemed to imply that this would be the last of this type of project.
Finally, Dave, thanked Tom Epps, the Senior Library Services Manager and described him as “delight to work with”. He also acknowledged and thanked Wali Taylor who he has known since 1968, and who he has admired for his “technical abilities "having being an engineer all his life”.
Dave Allen shortly raised a toast and encouraged everyone to go and view the marvellous exhibition. A discussion with Tom Epps about how an exhibition like this arises and what is involved in the process was essential. He explained that The Library of Birmingham does not have a budget itself but there are a series of independent organisations that are willing to fund projects like this. However, before a project of any kind can be approved there are four parameters that must be met, which are, is it funded, is it about Birmingham, does it involve our diverse communities and is there a learning element to the project.
Dave and Karen Allen (photographed together) enjoying their wine and speaking to guests, presented a great opportunity to converse about how this project that is intended to promote is embraced through a documentary lens.
Dave explained that he was a former teacher who decided to capture life through photography.
He explained that the constraints for such a project is that there is no funding for such an exhibition, and that is tough considering the costs of a venue to display the project, and also the cost of prints some of which, were as large as 1.5 metre square or even 2 metre square. He himself has been sponsored previously by Warwick, Chester and Coventry Universities.
When questioned about how this project arose and what was his vision was, his reply was candid, and he confessed that his personal thought was that it was “a kick against traditional advertising photography”. He explained that the usual ‘come to Birmingham’ advertising, as with the advertising campaigns of many other cities across the world, is” always very glossy and very sleek”, and although there are certain acknowledgements of reality, there is not much.
Dave exclaimed that selling the place almost always involved choosing the pretty and iconic but that this project intentionally went deeper than that, “goes beneath the veneer of the promotional photography that you get”.
Lastly Dave Allen assured that there is always a push for the community to take part in projects that involve the areas in which they live. He proudly professed “Everybody who takes part in my projects gets a space on my wall”, after all “why would they come back if I didn’t remember them”. This acknowledgement and value given to a project by the community for the community is uplifting and inclusive.
The poet, Ian Henery, explained his thoughts on the project, “This exhibition is a wonderful collaboration between photographers and poets. It is also an interesting exercise in social history, and I am chuffed to bits to have been part of it. I was partnered up with the photographer David Moore who I have admired for years. I’m proud that our work is on a display to the public”.
The Exhibition room, the clear glass walls and well-lit room enticed us in from a distance. There through the double doors was the huge, impressive poster, and picture of the book by Kevin Lynch, titled ‘The Image of the City (1960)’, his famous quote accompanied the picture and featured on the pamphlets of The Birmingham Grid Project, “If the environment is visibly organised and sharply identified, then the citizen can inform it with their own meanings and connections. Then it will become a true place, remarkable and unmistakeable”.
The poster picture is a compelling contrast to what the viewer is welcomed with inside the exhibition. Dave Allen incorporated Lynch’s idea that there are five relevant factors that affect a city’s image: paths, districts, landmarks, edges and nodes. These features have been used to place the photographs into five distinct groups.
The exhibition was well spaced and striking with the black background and the writing white and bold. The poetry and the pieces of poetry and prose allowed the attendees to not only understand the grouping but also understand the statement that the photographer was trying to make through the chosen image. Each image captured what the photographer intended us to see, whether it was visually pleasing or not. There was room to move smoothly between the five groups with also a photobook comprising all the thousands of photos that were taken for the project. This interactive piece is a statement, allowing the viewer to be tangibly connected with the project.
The exhibition is visually and mentally engaging and has delivered on the intention of the project. It leaves the viewer questioning how we see the place in which, we live and questions whether our view of the city that we call home in any way is altered if a more realistic photo is taken of it or a more apt poem is written no matter how much it may describe the decay.
Kevin Lynch said that “A good environmental image gives its possessor an important sense of emotional security”. The Birmingham Grid Project, delivers on all the grounds that Dave Allen intended, ‘The image may contain the picturesque or the ugly:this does not matter. Its distinctiveness and its legibility are the things that make the image strong’.
By Saida Chowdhury
