Brian Griffin (born 13 April 1948 in Birmingham; died 27 January 2024 in London) was widely acknowledged as one of the most prominent British photographers of his generation, constantly working on new materials and still pushing boundaries of contemporary photography until the end.
He was famous for his ground-breaking approach to portraiture from Iggy Pop to Kate Bush, and numerous high profile projects stretching from 'Work' in the 1980's to his project charting 'The Road to 2012', commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery. 'Work' went on to be awarded the Best Photography book in the World at the Barcelona Primavera Fotografica 1991 and The Life magazine used the photograph "A Broken Frame" on its front cover of a special supplement "The Greatest Photographs Of The 80's".
Throughout his career, over twenty monographs of Griffin's work have been published, his work has been the subject of over fifty international solo exhibitions and is held in institutional collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Arts Council of Great Britain, London; the British Council, London; the National Portrait Gallery, London; the Museum Folkwang, Essen; the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; the Art Museum Reykjavík, Iceland; the Mast Foundation, Bologna; and the Museu da Imagem, Braga, Portugal.
In 2009, Brian Griffin became the patron of FORMAT Festival and in 2013 he received the Centenary Medal from the Royal Photographic Society in recognition of a lifetime achievement in photography, and the following year he received an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University for his lifetime contribution to his home city.
"I think that Brian is one of the most interesting portrait photographers ever. His portrait photography belongs to another time. Portrait photography today is like so simple, so straightforward, so it seems that all photography portraits are alike. Brian is different and Brian has a craziness in him - a craziness in a way to see the world, and intensity that belongs only to him."
- Francois Hébel, Director, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson (present), Director, Les Rencontres d'Arles (1986-1987, 2001-2014), in the documentary by Michael Prince; The Surreal Lives of Brian Griffin, 2018