Back in 2019 I was working on a contract in Birmingham. Sutton Coldfield to be exact. Years earlier I had gone down about a job so I was surprised to see how much it had changed since my previous visit.
I had 9 months to get to know the place so I had plenty of time to discover what Birmingham had to offer and I wasn't disappointed.
One of the coolest areas was Digbeth, famous for Peaky Blinders where they started holding an annual festival in acknowledgement to the popular tv series. An old industrial area, it has been transformed into a hub of cafes, clubs and boutique shops very much aligned with the arts and crafts.
I was particularly impressed with the graffiti on show, which would regularly be painted over with new artwork.
It was the ideal medium for me to take photographs, capturing the scale of the work and the environment.
Here they had an art gallery freely available for the public to enjoy as they wandered the streets.
Everywhere you turned, there'd be more incredible art. On the side of old industrial buildings long past their Victorian heyday or under the railway bridges that were now used as car parks.
The area was transformed into a pop culture wonderland that was perfect for the camera to record for posterity, since all these pieces of art will now be long gone.
A particular favourite was the mural of Spiderman with the whole stretch of the wall dedicated to the Marvel hero.
I am in awe of the skill these artists show in creating such giant paintings to scale, keeping the proportions and maintaining the clean shapes of the subject matter.
Needless to say, I took hundreds of photos while I was down there so I'll add another post (or more) in the future with other pics of this city of graffiti.
You can find more at www.hereandback.co.uk
All the best.
Holly