Reasons to be Cheerful

What’s the 70’s Punk icon Ian Dury, street art and a well known local pub got to do with ec2i? The answer is an unusual collaboration to celebrate 41 years since the Essex boy (as he liked to be known) and The Blockheads released their first album, New Boots And Panties.

Ec2i retoucher and accomplished photographer Damian Smith noticed that well known local street artist John Bulley had painted a vibrant and colourful image of Ian adjacent to The Railway Hotel in Southend.  Damian wanted to capture the mural before it was removed or destroyed, so photographed it in black & white and scanned the figure of Ian as he appeared on his 1977 album, montaged and positioned him standing in front of his own likeness. He then had the idea of producing limited edition prints in conjunction with The Railway to raise funds for HARP, Southend’s homeless Charity.

As Damian says, “After finishing the retouching, I thought it would be great to try and produce a limited run of prints and sell them to the patrons for The Railway Hotel in Southend, so decided to contact Chaz Jankel from The Blockheads who was Ian’s right hand man and fellow musician from day one. Chaz was more than happy to support the project and the charity & arranged for all of the band members to sign the prints at their recording studio in London. The Blockheads also put the story of the limited edition prints across their Twitter & Facebook feeds and unsurprisingly there was a lot of interest from their very loyal worldwide fan base. The mounted, signed and framed prints were supposed to sell locally in Southend but have been snapped up by fans across the UK as well as the USA and as far away as New Zealand.  When all the 41 signed prints sell, it will raise £900 for Harp”.

EC2i has produced the photographic prints on 250 gsm matt paper with archival inks to achieve a true neutral black & white tonal image.  They are available to purchase at https://www.monocol.pictures/railway