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A Blank Wall

@blankwall.uk

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Discovering the world. 80,000 unseen photos, taken over 40 years & 40 countries by my grandad I never met. Virtual world map and limited prints👇

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What is a classic mount to you?

Styles come and go, but a good quality conservation off-white mount is hard to beat, especially at 2200 micron (extra thick).

This job was all about keeping things classic. Working with @blankwall.uk on his British Summer exhibition, we travelled back to the nostalgia of a 1970s British summer holiday, celebrating simpler times.

Jack and I carefully chose a happy all-round classic mounting , giving these larger pictures room to breathe while keeping everything nicely balanced.

A reminder that bespoke framing doesn’t need to be complicated to get it right.

From the framing studio in Bungay, Suffolk. 🤍

#BespokeFraming #CustomFraming #BungayFramingStudio #SuffolkStudio

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The wonderful paradox of the busier one gets, the less time they have to post on here .

Lots amazing work coming through the studio last few weeks, lots of interesting processes to accompany it .

Little clips from @blankwall.uk exhibition prep a few weeks back .

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“Jack is at his day job when we call, grabbing an hour during his lunch break to speak with me. In the lead up to the launch of ‘Almost Home’, Jack’s as busy as ever. With 250,000 followers, A Blank Wall’s Instagram is a full time job in and of itself. Everyone’s a photographer on Instagram, so what allowed Herbert Smith’s work, an artist who presented the platform, to cut through the noise?”

For his exhibition ‘Almost Home (1959-85)’ in the Plaster Backroom, Jack Smith caught up with Livia Magyar to discuss his grandfather, Herbert, and the 80,000 film photographs he left behind.

The exhibition is open at Plaster until Saturday 3rd October.

Read the full article at the link in bio.

Words: @livmagyar
Photography: @mekdes.zk
@blankwall.uk

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Last Thursday, @blankwall.uk’s ‘Almost Home’ landed at Plaster HQ. The exhibition brought together a personal curation of photographs from his grandad’s 40-year lifetime behind the lens – spanning 40 countries and a man he never had the chance to meet.

The opening drew a crowd, with @Dora_db on hand to chat with guests throughout the evening.

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Don’t say we don’t treat you. Here’s a little sneak peek at some of the works on show for @blankwall.uk’s opening tonight in The Backroom at Plaster HQ.

If you haven’t already got plans, we better see you there!

‘Almost Home’ is a personal curation by @blankwall.uk of images from his grandad’s lifetime of photography, over 40 years, across 40 countries, captured by a man he never had the chance to meet.

If you haven’t RSVP’d yet, head to the link in our bio to sign up. See you tonight.

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We’re extremely excited to announce that on 24th September @blankwall.uk ‘s exhibition, ‘Almost Home (1959-85)’, will launch in The Backroom and will remain on show until 2nd October at Plaster HQ.

The exhibition is a personal curation of photographs taken by Herbert Smith FRPS, a small selection from a huge collection of tens of thousands of largely unseen film photographs taken around the world over four decades before the photographers’ passing in 1987.

The collection was re-discovered in 2021 by Smith’s grandson, Jack, who has since been working through the archive and exhibit this original body of work for the first time.

‘Almost Home (1959-85) Selected Works in Colour’
24.09.26 - 02.10.26
PV: 24th Sep 5:30-8pm

Free drinks and great art.
Free RSVP necessary: link through bio. Once there, click through to this grid post to be redirected to RSVP landing page.

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RSVP IN THE LINK IN BIO. Super excited to announce the upcoming exhibition and print edition ‘Almost Home’ (1959-85), a self-curated selection of colour photographs taken by my grandad Herbert over half a century ago.

The five photographs from the upcoming release, plus an extended curation of prints will be exhibited in London, with the private view on Thursday 24th September, upstairs at The Backroom at @plastermagazine in Soho.

‘Almost Home’ is my most personal curation of colour images from my grandad’s lifetime of work yet, and was from its inception designed to be enjoyed close up and in person.

I spent much of this summer digging through thousands of positive slides, building my own narrative (and getting pretty lost multiple times) in the images that has helped me build a picture of who my grandfather was.

At the end of hot, sun soaked summers across a thirty year period, these are photographs taken as he returned home from abroad, an intimate curation in this project that can often seem to be about overwhelming size and scale. The curation, printing and space in which they will be shown are all designed to reflect this.

- Come celebrate and have a drink (on me & the good people at @twotribesbrew ), at the private view - 24th September, 5:30pm - 8pm upstairs at 20 Great Chapel Street, Soho.

- RSVP essential & in the link in bio.✨

- The online limited print edition will be available to the public Sunday 27th September. Prints will be available for two weeks only, or whilst the edition lasts. 📆

Come early, stay late - the space is small and will likely be busy.

If you’d like to see the exhibition pieces in your own time, they will on view until early October, and available to purchase via my website from the following Sunday, or at the private view.

More information to come. ❤️

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Nothing Forced Lasts Forever // 2026 So Far

Around the world with artists, labels, events and brands. Here’s what our Content & Social division has been working on this year 🧪

Digital strategy, account management, design, content strategy and content production for @solidgroovesuk, including content direction at all SG events worldwide

Digital strategy, account management and original content for @benjib, including flagship content series Benji B Archives

Digital and creative strategy, account management and content production for @melladee_, the Spanglecore conisseur who uses shortform content and an irreverent tone of voice to build an online world for his deep, grooving tracks to live in

Editorial strategy, ideation and content production for @solidgroovesuk, including artist-first social content series that amplifies the talent powering Grooves

Creative direction, music video direction, concept and ideation for @djjoerolet, as well as digital strategy and account management for the rising UK star

Campaign film for @relentlessenergydrink x @girlsdontsync, announcing the girls’ return to Liverpool to launch Local, the initiative that uplifts grassroots artists and collectives based outside of the major cities in the UK

Digital and creative strategy, campaign planning and management and content production for the reissue of @djjjfrost’s seminal jungle record Burial, placing the track at the heart of electronic music culture in 2026

Content ideation and production for the @burn_energy Tour 2026, including creating and developing original content series that place artists at the heart of music discovery and documenting live events across wrap videos, short films and DJ clips

Creative direction, content direction and digital strategy for @solidgroovesuk international shows and residencies, bringing the moments to life online and in real time

Content strategy, ideation and production for @broadwicklive, honing in on the unique stories at the heart of cutting-edge shows at Drumsheds, Silverworks Island, Magazine and Magazine Open Air

Ideation, production and content strategy for @spotifyuk x @drumsheds, putting artists and music discovery at the centre

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Details on the next exhibition in my bio!👇The crazy thing about discovering a collection of tens of thousands of unseen photographs is that I’m still finding new things I’ve never fully looked at.

So when we finally got round to looking through, preserving and cataloguing the hundreds, if not thousands of handmade darkroom prints my grandfather Herbert made over the course of his life, I opened a whole new world of discovery.

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✨ Comment ‘print’ to sign up for news, updates and info on an upcoming event showing colour works from my grandads collection in London. More info inbound!✨

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I never met my grandad, having passed in 1987, and so this is how I’ve got to know him - through his work and his travels.

Within this drawer are hundreds of handmade B&W prints, some in folders, some backed, almost entirely shot on Ilford film and printed on Ilford silver gelatine paper. There are jaw dropping images from Galapagos to Morocco, as well as stacks of early prints, as far back as pre-WW2, often still held in their original Ilford folders.

I’ve only recently discovered the true extent of these with my Dad, and they show a lifetime of craft, commitment and passion to an art form, and who he was artistically.

He considered B&W to be a true photographic art form, with his colour work mainly shot on slides and never printed.

The majority of the prints are painstakingly produced test prints, the result of careful photo editing done in his home darkroom, showing his choices of crops, dodging and burning and giving me a rare insight into his creative process. He never left notes or reasoning behind his work, so this is invaluable as it is emotional.

Stay tuned for updates on an upcoming private view this month in London of my grandfathers work…

Head to the link in bio for more. 📸

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Jack Smith never met his grandfather. But has spent years getting to know him through his photographs. 80,000 unseen stories, waiting to be read. A lifetime of photography, taken over forty years, in forty countries by Herbert Smith FRPS (1917-87).

Read his story https://www.ilfordphoto.com/a-blank-wall/

All images © 2026 The Herbert Smith Estate / A Blank Wall - all rights reserved

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Before generative AI, there was my great uncle F. X. Burns, who at 18 years old created the fictional Gotham Magazine in the spring of 1937. Growing up on Bay State Ave in Somerville, he did all of this by hand just for the love of creation, for an audience of 1. I never got the chance to meet him, but 89 years later I hope to finally bring Gotham to the finish line.

My goal is to print an accurate representation of this, the complete March 1937 issue, and cobble together a May 1937 issue from his drafts. It will be a challenge due to the age of the paper and my non-mastery of digital graphic design, but I’m up for it and appreciate any tips on how I should go about it.

Follow along for the journey of the magazine, and my other endeavors in music and film photography 🤝

#somerville #magazine #graphicdesign #artsandcrafts #illustration

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When I received a message asking to help furnish a new British Japanese restaurant in Soho opening summer 2026, the idea sounded interesting.

I rarely do commissions without clear intentionality behind the proposal, but the placement and selections of two large archival prints taken on the British coastline in the 1960s and in Japan in the 1980s by my grandfather Herbert not only looked amazing, but were a considered nod the ethos behind the space and the food.

Really humbling to think that people will be able to enjoy my grandad’s work again and again up close in such a setting.

Thanks @eliott_grabli and the team at @miokurulondon for the vision.

It was fun crafting my interior photographic skills with the @omsystemcameras.uk OM-3, which is the modern take on the camera used to take the printed Japanese photograph in these images. These photos are my own.

Food critic here we come x

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