When you take a photo you may be capturing something which would otherwise be lost forever. It never occurred to me that when I took some photos around the back streets of Plymouth Barbican thirty odd years ago that I mght be creating a historical document. The subject was the Robert Lenkiewicz mural which was something of a local landmark. In particular I was struck by a small section of the bottom of the huge painting which covers an entire gable end of a building. It is a self portrait of the artist as a youg man before he grew his trademark beard. He is holding paint brushes and a begging bowl lying in the gutter next to an unconscious drunk who was modelled by a vagrant known as the Bishop and was familiar figure in Plymouth. The juxtaposition of the two figures made an interesting composition so I took a close up shot. Many years later I made a scan of the slide and it is a great self portrait of Robert Lenkiewicz looking out of the picture imploringly at the viewer.Unfortunately the passage of time has not been kind to the mural. It is now covered in battens from an attempt to protect it but the paint is faded and flaking. Perhaps my photo will one day be the only detailed record of this section of a lost masterpiece.
To see my stock photos of Plymouth Barbican CLICK HERE
The mural photo is not available at my agency and depending on use he original art work may be subject to Copyright of the Lenkeiwicz estate. Please contact me to discuss an proposals to reproduce it. I assert my copyright on the actual photo and my composition of the image as my own new artwork.
