Johny_Pitts_r001-003_Sized_For_Print copy.jpg
Johny_Pitts_r001-003_Sized_For_Print copy.jpg

Johny Pitts - Southwyck House, Brixton

£100.00

Professionally printed on 10x12 Arches 88 fine art matte paper, 100% cotton-rag.

from a larger body of work called 'Home is not a Place', documenting Black British culture. 

I was born and raised in Sheffield, UK, but my Dad is from Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. For that reason my favourite Hip-Hop album is 'Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Blackstar', an album released in 1998 which brings to life the energy of my Dad's neighbourhood. In 2018 I learned that the album contained photographs by a Black British photographer from Brixton called Eddie Otchere, and it happened that that very day Eddie was doing a photo workshop in Brixton. I dashed over from my home in Camberwell, arriving late, just as the workshop was ending, but Eddie generously agreed to stay on, taking me on a photo tour of the area, and processing my photos in a makeshift darkroom he'd set up in a semi derelict mechanics workshop. I thought I knew Brixton well, but as we walked together taking photographs, I learned so many things about the area I didn't know. One such fact was that the Southwyck House estate had originally been designed (partly inspired by the Park Hill Housing Estate in Sheffield) as a sound barrier for a proposed elevated motorway that would have ripped right through Brixton. After much kickback from residents, the proposal for the motorway was scrapped in the 70s, but the estate remains as a reminder of both an alternative future and the resistance of Brixton's community. I love how raw the image turned out, not only due to Eddie's on-the-spot processing but also the scan of the negative I made of it on my glitchy Konica DS1000. It brings together my biography in a single image - Sheffield, Brooklyn and Brixton, the epicentre of Black Britain.

Johny Pitts is an award winning artist whose work with words and images investigates questions of home and belonging in a globalised world. His photobooks include Home Is Not A Place, a collaboration with the poet Roger Robinson which was awarded an Ampersand Photoworks Fellowship, and Afropean: A Journal (Mörel) which received the ‘Special Mention’ at the 2025 Prix du Livre at Rencontres d’Arles. He has held solo exhibitions at Foam Amsterdam, The Photographer's Gallery London and has a forthcoming show at Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris. His work is held in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum. 

“From its early anti-Thatcher Socialist roots to its youth outreach schemes and fairly priced workshops, over the years Photofusion has been a stalwart of the London photography scene. Unlike many other art/photographic organisations, Photofusion is rooted in community, and its presence in the heart of multicultural Brixton has always offered an opportunity for those who may otherwise not consider photography a viable career or even hobby, to engage in the art form.” -Johny Pitts

Print is unsigned. Your purchase will contain a letter of authenticity from Photofusion noting Title of Print, Photographer and signed by Photofusion's Director. Due to all printing being completed expertly in-house, please allow a period of up to 28 days for your order to be shipped.

Professionally printed on 10x12 Arches 88 fine art matte paper, 100% cotton-rag.

from a larger body of work called 'Home is not a Place', documenting Black British culture. 

I was born and raised in Sheffield, UK, but my Dad is from Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. For that reason my favourite Hip-Hop album is 'Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Blackstar', an album released in 1998 which brings to life the energy of my Dad's neighbourhood. In 2018 I learned that the album contained photographs by a Black British photographer from Brixton called Eddie Otchere, and it happened that that very day Eddie was doing a photo workshop in Brixton. I dashed over from my home in Camberwell, arriving late, just as the workshop was ending, but Eddie generously agreed to stay on, taking me on a photo tour of the area, and processing my photos in a makeshift darkroom he'd set up in a semi derelict mechanics workshop. I thought I knew Brixton well, but as we walked together taking photographs, I learned so many things about the area I didn't know. One such fact was that the Southwyck House estate had originally been designed (partly inspired by the Park Hill Housing Estate in Sheffield) as a sound barrier for a proposed elevated motorway that would have ripped right through Brixton. After much kickback from residents, the proposal for the motorway was scrapped in the 70s, but the estate remains as a reminder of both an alternative future and the resistance of Brixton's community. I love how raw the image turned out, not only due to Eddie's on-the-spot processing but also the scan of the negative I made of it on my glitchy Konica DS1000. It brings together my biography in a single image - Sheffield, Brooklyn and Brixton, the epicentre of Black Britain.

Johny Pitts is an award winning artist whose work with words and images investigates questions of home and belonging in a globalised world. His photobooks include Home Is Not A Place, a collaboration with the poet Roger Robinson which was awarded an Ampersand Photoworks Fellowship, and Afropean: A Journal (Mörel) which received the ‘Special Mention’ at the 2025 Prix du Livre at Rencontres d’Arles. He has held solo exhibitions at Foam Amsterdam, The Photographer's Gallery London and has a forthcoming show at Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris. His work is held in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum. 

“From its early anti-Thatcher Socialist roots to its youth outreach schemes and fairly priced workshops, over the years Photofusion has been a stalwart of the London photography scene. Unlike many other art/photographic organisations, Photofusion is rooted in community, and its presence in the heart of multicultural Brixton has always offered an opportunity for those who may otherwise not consider photography a viable career or even hobby, to engage in the art form.” -Johny Pitts

Print is unsigned. Your purchase will contain a letter of authenticity from Photofusion noting Title of Print, Photographer and signed by Photofusion's Director. Due to all printing being completed expertly in-house, please allow a period of up to 28 days for your order to be shipped.