Birmingham as a city adopts, welcomes and embraces it’s inhabitants regardless of culture and creed and I believe that this is also true of it’s fabric. The less desirable, unattractive underdog buildings are embraced as icons and cherished as testament to the warmth of the city’s

There is no doubt that making Birmingham look beautiful is a challenge. With the right light and the right editing, it is possible. Over the past 12 months I have witnessed a ‘baby-boom’ of talented photographers taking to the streets to capture the hidden beauty of bleak-Birmingham and produce images that Birmingham City Councils marketing department must be salivating at.

You only have to search ‘Birmingham’ on Instagram and within a few scrolls of a digit, you will find striking images of the city’s once loathed buildings bathed in hipster filters and fresh life breathed into their concrete lungs. Popular pages such as ‘IgersBirmingham’ and ‘Hiddenbrum’ and many other social media outlets have created intrigue and mystery around the city and have forced people to look at the boxy beauties with new eyes.

Birmingham seems to have reached a tipping point. It may finally be on the brink of shedding it’s ‘ugly-duckling’ image. With redevelopment-a-plenty in the city centre headed by the Grand Central/New Street Station, Paradise Forum development and big plans down the line for HS2, the City may be coming of age with a bright future to look forward to. Riding the crest of this wave will be the photographers, bloggers, former Londonites and all-round hipsters that have seen Birmingham’s true beauty.