Provenance

(Augusta Edwards Fine Art, London); NGA purchase, 2022.

Associated Names

Inscriptions

on verso, signed by artist, lower right in graphite: Graham Smith; by artist, upper center: Harry, landlord of the commercial, died before his time the year this photograph was taken. His sudden / death and the hard job of managing a beer pub, looking after the needs of pub dependant [sic], were not unrelated. / Although there are those special moments being the boss of a pub, there is always a price to pay. / Graham Smith 10.12.2021; center: Photography, especially street photography, can reveal qualities unknown at the time of making a picture. / Some years after making this picture, I was told by Ted Cocker, the man who took over from Harry as / landlord of the commercial, that the man walking across the road was his father. Those who knew / my father would comment on how Ted Cocker’s father looked like my father. And I didn’t know / at the time of making this picture that my father, Albert Smith, and Ted Cocker were drinking friends / and had also worked together in the steelworks. And again, some years after making this picture, my / father told me that the woman walking around the corner was his neighbor who, when needed, cared / for him towards the end of his life.; center right perpendicular: PRINT MADE BY GRAHAM SMITH 2008; lower left: BENNETTS CORNER (GIRO CORNER) THE ERIMUS CLUB AND THE COMMERCIAL PUB / SOUTH BANK, MIDDLESBROUGH 1982