High Vis 2023 celebrating 50 years of HipHop

The Printworks on Fazeley street was the venue for this year’s High Vis festival.  The event celebrated 50 years of HipHop bringing together Birmingham’s street artists and dancers.  I went along on the Saturday afternoon and many of the street artists were nearing the completion of their street art.  Printworks is on the other side of the railway bridge to HS2 and several artists were working underneath the bridge at the junction of New Canal street and Fazeley street.  Security personnel from HS2 were present and a little bemused by what was taking place.  The festival people were friendly and in good form chatting about the artwork and catching up with friends, some of whom were heading off to Birmingham City’s first home match of the season.  The street outside the Printworks was traffic free thanks to the HS2 works although many of the signs were caught up in paint spray.  

As with any street art, the colours are vibrant and the artwork eye catching.  Inside the yard there was a large grinning face of Tempo33 looking down on the street art.  Centre place was a caravan that was getting the Spray-paint treatment.  The walls inside the yard were taken up with different artwork.  Inside the building there was constant supply of HipHop music with dancers displaying their different skills.  If there are any credits missing then please let me know via my socials. I have added (*) where I am unsure of artists.

All this activity was excellent for photography purposes and my Fujifilm x100v was put to good use.  Outside the camera was on aperture priority with the colour balance set at daylight.  For the hip hop dancing, I went for high ISO, f/5.6 and shutter speed 1/500.  The dancers were fun to capture, with the freeze frame pictures. Their expressions tell so many stories.  

This is my third documentation of the High Vis festival and I have included my blogs from the last two for further reading. Take a look at the two films made for the BBC by John Bray.
– Birmingham High-Vis Festival returns to celebrate street culture
– Street artists bring vibrant colours to Birmingham