The Black Kingdom

Recognised as one of the UK's most important photographers of the last forty years, Brian Griffin grew up near Birmingham amongst the factories of the Black Country. His parents were factory workers and from birth Griffin seemed set to follow in their footsteps. And so, on leaving school at the age [...]
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Recognised as one of the UK's most important photographers of the last forty years, Brian Griffin grew up near Birmingham amongst the factories of the Black Country. His parents were factory workers and from birth Griffin seemed set to follow in their footsteps. And so, on leaving school at the age 16, he began working in a factory, just like everyone else around him. A year later he moved to British Steel working as a trainee pipework engineering estimator in a job that involved costing systems for the nuclear power stations that were then being built. He remained there four years before escaping the tedium of the office by enrolling to study photography at Manchester College of Art. Griffin has exhibited and published widely. In 1989 he had a one-man show at the National Portrait Gallery, London. The same year The Guardian newspaper selected him as 'The Photographer of the Decade' and LIFE magazine used his photograph 'A Broken Frame' as the covershot for their feature 'Greatest Photographs of the Eighties'. During the 1990s Brian Griffin retired from photography and focused on directing advertising, pop videos and short films.He returned to photography in 2001, reestablishing himself once again at the pinacle of British Photography.