6.30pm to 9.00pm

Dewi Lewis Publishing and Brian Griffin invite you to join them for the book launch of THE BLACK KINGDOM a visual autobiography by Brian Griffin

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, at the age 16, he began his working life in a factory, just like everyone else around him.

The Black Kingdom is a visual autobiography of Brian Griffin’s life during the 1950s and 60s where everything surrounding him seemed to emanate from the factory. For Griffin, his first 21 years living in a warren of terraced streets set amongst factories and continually polluted by their smells and noise, remain indelibly printed on him and have shaped the person he is.

Brian 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 selected him as ‘The Photographer of the Decade’ and LIFE magazine used a photograph of his as the covershot for their feature ‘Greatest Photographs of the Eighties’. During the 1990s Griffin retired from photography and focused on directing advertising, pop videos and short films. He returned to photography in 2001, re-establishing himself once again at the pinacle of British Photography.