presents the largest exhibition to date of original prints by American photographer, academic and documentary filmmaker Janet Mendelsohn.聽The artist聽studied at the University of Birmingham鈥檚 newly-established between 1967 and 1969, and during this time developed a 鈥減hoto-essay鈥 consisting of around 3,000 photographs largely in the area of Balsall Heath, Birmingham.
The images offer聽a candid view of inner-city life during a time in which immigration from the Caribbean and South Asia grew, poverty was rife and areas such as Balsall Heath saw great transformation in terms of population and way of life. This was an area that was waiting to undergo severe slum clearance and within two years would become unrecognisable, with the infamous Varna Road, ceasing to exist.
Before this clearance in the late 1960s, the area was home to 200 prostitutes, and so amongst images taken inside pubs, caf茅s and living rooms, and portraits of family gatherings, Mendelson hones in on a sex worker, Kathleen. The photographer and her subject formed a close relationship and through images of Kathleen, Mendelson communicates the tendency for women to fall into prostitution due to difficult circumstances.
Photographs of Kathleen soliciting passers-by and waiting in the street, damp with rain are coupled with shots of her in hospital, having just given birth, and at home with her children in bed and at bath-time; encouraging not pity but simply communicating the attitude of the photographer, 鈥渓ive and let live.鈥
Janet Mendelsohn: Varna Road,聽27 January –聽3 April,聽Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, Birmingham B1 2HS.
Find out more: .
Follow us on Twitter for the latest news in contemporary art and culture.
Credits
1.聽Janet Mendelsohn, Kathleen (c.1968). Black and white photographic print. Courtesy Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections, University of Birmingham.
