Richard Christensen
North Birmingham 1984-1985
Cafe Royal Books
As a kid, North Birmingham was another place. It was green-leafed ease round our way. Moseley boho licence. Occasional bled hippy ghost men and women, sharp nosed smack heads but mostly money.
Witton was summer break warehouse work. Handsworth was Commie meetings above stalinist bookshops. I taught not far from Rookery Road in the noughties but it was a different place then.
Three of the photos stuck:
“BEWARE VICIOUS DOG… BEWARE GUARD DOG” - This is a poem. Pages and pages of cloth from white wires. Facets at angles and odd shadows. Back to Back traces. This is a painting.
Pile of lads in Newtown. The right clothes. Adidas Samba. The real thing, not the tribute act. Whited out towers (pitiless grids).
Aston Church Road looking down to the gas towers. Another grid. This time delicate, almost sidereal. This is a cycling down view I’ve had.
About twenty years ago I fell out of love with painting. Photography fed an appetite for images that wasn’t quite killed. Richard Christensen helps my head. Corners of the city that were never mine kept and treasured.
Essential Information
Richard Christensen, North Birmingham 1984-1985, Cafe Royal Books is available here
