Black Country Women - Multistory/Martin Parr

Black Country Women is 68pp full colour A4 magazine. Working with Mutlistory and Photographer Martin Parr, Surely art directed and designed the magazine to present Martins photos in a style and format of weekly Women's magazines. Writers Emma Purshouse and Margaret Drabble wrote articles and stories based on conversations with women of the Black Country. Aesthetically, playfully, but respectfully the design nodded to the colours and approaches of these popular magazines to present unique content, in a manner that worked for both the audience that inspired it as well as the contemporary photography collectors.

A limited run of special editions were produced with heavyweight gloss varnish covers, sealed in a printed sleeve, and signed by Martin Parr and Margaret Drabble.

Writing in the Telegraph (12/2013) the Magnum photographer Alec Soth picked Black Country Women as no.3 in his top 10 photo books of 2013.

"Nosey Parr-ker hits it out of the park with this hysterically funny yet humane look at working-class women in the English West Midlands. While the magazine format initially seemed like a joke, it actually prompted me to look at an otherwise invisible population and consider my own cultural bias."