posted on 27 Feb 2023

Two Photozines from Brian Homer

I was delighted to get my hands on two more Photozines from Birmingham-based photographer, Brian Homer. These small and beautifully designed booklets are chosen thematically from the photographers archive and I’ve been able to review previous releases here and here.

Handsworth, Birmingham 1978/9 is made up from street photography that Homer did during his time working for a small photographic agency on Grove Lane in Handsworth, where he worked with two other well-known photographers, Derek Bishton and John Reardon.

“In those days Derek and I often walked round together taking pictures – which is why he pops up in a couple of the photographs – and most of these pictures were taken during those sessions.”

These photographs have very special resonance for me because it was at just this time that I too started working in Handsworth at the local welfare benefits office, where I was the local trade union representative. This was a febrile time in Handsworth and tensions between the local community and the police were beginning to boil – no-one living or working in the area could be unaware of the brooding atmosphere. These tensions, in synchronisation with other similar areas across the country, came to a head barely two years later:

“Some of the images show signs of the tension that existed between the community and the police. Stop and search of black youth was widely resented and the years that followed there would be riots caused by heavy-handed policing.”

The booklet opens with a street scene depicting the graffiti that became all too familiar over these years and ends with the ‘Fight Back’ notices that were fly-posted in the area. In between these symbols of resistance are pictures of a community going about its day-to-day business. There’s also what must be quite rare images of a public meeting being addressed by (the then religiously inclined) Eldridge Cleaver.

The second Photozine has, for me at least, real historic value. Rock Against Racism/Anti-Nazi League 1978 is a selection of images from the first rally in London which launched the whole RAR movement.

“The first Rock Against Racism/Anti-Nazi League Carnival on 30th April 1978 was a mass march of at least 100,000 people from Trafalgar Square in London to Victoria Park in Hackney to express strong opposition to the Fascists of the National Front and the British Movement.”

Along the way and in the park, punk and reggae bands played for free – establishing something of a precedent for other high profile bands to join the movement and export the aims of the RAR movement around the country.

Some of Brian’s images were used in the 2020 documentary, White Riot, but the others have sat unseen in his archive ever since the event. What will strike you most about the photographs that document the march is the average age of those taking part – this really was a young person’s movement.

For anyone who loves street photography and believes in the importance of its role in the maintenance of social memory will love these Photozines. You can see many of the images and order the booklets for yourself on Brian Homer’s own website:

 https://www.brianhomer.com/photography/prints-publications/

 

Terry Potter

February 2023