Portraits 1983 - 1986

"From 1983 - 1986 I embarked on a slightly mad project inspired by that rascal Bertold Brecht who once commented on that we are all workers. So with this in mind, I set off on this socialist ideal that we are all equal and we all have a job to do be it as an actor or a kitchen maid. The results were too numerous to remember. Shot in black and white they were hand coloured to highlight various objects in the frame such as light switches and electrical wires or plumbing. Many of the origiinal silver prints were sold or were destroyed in a flooded basement studio some years ago. The negs were safe so with the advent of digitisation i have been putting together a digitally remastered set, all hand colouring by techniques developed for this project in Photoshop CS3.

I have selected approx 50 portraits for the book but there is no final figure as yet as it is still in production. Before the book can be compiled the negatives have to be scanned in and hand retouched. This is a long and labourious job. There will be a limited edtion of each print of 5 which are approx 40cm x 55 cm. Further information will follow. The illustration is of a couple whom I knew, whose passion was the 1950's. "

Image : Teds Leamington Spa 1983 © Bill Jackson