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Handsworth Riots

Photograph
09/1985 (photographed), 2012 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Born in St. Kitts, Pogus Caesar moved to Birmingham as a child. His photographs of the local community include a record of the brief but significant period of social unrest in the Handsworth area at the beginning of September 1985.

The events that became known as the 1985 ‘Handsworth riots’ began the day after the multicultural community’s annual carnival. The disturbances were said to have started when crowds gathered to protest against the arrest of a black man whose car was thought to be illegally parked and missing a tax disc. Two days of violence resulted in extensive damage to the local area and left 35 people injured, 2 people unaccounted for and 2 people dead. Caesar’s photographs taken on a basic 35mm Auto Focus camera highlight the everyday circumstances in which the destruction occurred. He has since commented that ‘even today many people still ask the question: ‘how could a tiny spark turn into such a gigantic flame?’

The disturbances remain a contentious turn of events, especially the way in which they were policed and reported. National media coverage often portrayed the violence as a result of interracial conflict between Handsworth’s black and Asian communities, an account disputed by local people. Handsworth had witnessed an earlier outbreak of violence in 1981, during a series of disturbances across Britain. The events in 1985 were also followed by further conflicts in urban areas, such as Brixton and Broadwater Farm in London. The social discontent which surfaced in all of these areas has since been linked to high levels of unemployment and poor relations between the police and local people. Caesar documented the events in Handsworth alongside Black Audio Film Collective, which explored the representation of the ‘riots’ in their seminal film Handsworth Songs (1986).

The V&A acquired four of Caesar’s photographs as part of the Staying Power project. Staying Power is a five year partnership between the V&A and Black Cultural Archives. The project aims to explore black British experience from the 1950s to the 1990s through photographs acquired by the V&A and oral histories conducted by Black Cultural Archives.

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Discover more about this object
read Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience Working in partnership with Black Cultural Archives, we identified and acquired photographs taken by black photographers, or which document the lives of black people in Britain, taken between the 1950s – 90s.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Handsworth Riots (series title)
  • Underside of overturned car with two men walking past (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Gelatin silver prints from archival 35mm negatives
Brief description
Photograph by Pogus Caesar from the series Handsworth Riots, gelatin silver print, Handsworth, Birmingham, 1985, printed 2012
Physical description
A black and white photograph of an upturned car on a street with two men walking past in the background. There is smoke surrounding the car, particularly in the right hand corner of the image. The two men wear suits with their hands in their pockets, one of them is black and the other white. The black man wears a flat cap. The image is noticeably grainy in quality.
Dimensions
  • Image width: 45.5cm
  • Image height: 30.5cm
  • Paper height: 35.75cm
  • Paper width: 50.5cm
Styles
Production typeLimited edition
Credit line
Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Object history
The V&A acquired this photograph as part of the Staying Power project. Staying Power is a five year partnership between the V&A and Black Cultural Archives. The project aims to explore black British experience from the 1950s to the 1990s through photographs acquired by the V&A and oral histories conducted by Black Cultural Archives.
Subjects depicted
Places depicted
Summary
Born in St. Kitts, Pogus Caesar moved to Birmingham as a child. His photographs of the local community include a record of the brief but significant period of social unrest in the Handsworth area at the beginning of September 1985.

The events that became known as the 1985 ‘Handsworth riots’ began the day after the multicultural community’s annual carnival. The disturbances were said to have started when crowds gathered to protest against the arrest of a black man whose car was thought to be illegally parked and missing a tax disc. Two days of violence resulted in extensive damage to the local area and left 35 people injured, 2 people unaccounted for and 2 people dead. Caesar’s photographs taken on a basic 35mm Auto Focus camera highlight the everyday circumstances in which the destruction occurred. He has since commented that ‘even today many people still ask the question: ‘how could a tiny spark turn into such a gigantic flame?’

The disturbances remain a contentious turn of events, especially the way in which they were policed and reported. National media coverage often portrayed the violence as a result of interracial conflict between Handsworth’s black and Asian communities, an account disputed by local people. Handsworth had witnessed an earlier outbreak of violence in 1981, during a series of disturbances across Britain. The events in 1985 were also followed by further conflicts in urban areas, such as Brixton and Broadwater Farm in London. The social discontent which surfaced in all of these areas has since been linked to high levels of unemployment and poor relations between the police and local people. Caesar documented the events in Handsworth alongside Black Audio Film Collective, which explored the representation of the ‘riots’ in their seminal film Handsworth Songs (1986).

The V&A acquired four of Caesar’s photographs as part of the Staying Power project. Staying Power is a five year partnership between the V&A and Black Cultural Archives. The project aims to explore black British experience from the 1950s to the 1990s through photographs acquired by the V&A and oral histories conducted by Black Cultural Archives.
Associated objects
Collection
Accession number
E.1200-2012

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Record createdJuly 18, 2012
Record URL
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