In one multi-cultural suburb of Birmingham an important social experiment was under way.

Photographers Derek Bishton, Brian Homer and John Reardon set up an open-air studio on Grove Lane in Handsworth in autumn 1979, giving passers-by the opportunity to make their own portrait and choose how they wanted to present themselves. They put up signs in English, Punjabi and Urdu inviting local people to come along and take their own portraits for free.

Today, 23 years on, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has dispalyed a selection of the photos in an exhibition called 'Face the Camera'.

While the Handsworth sitters appear against a uniform stark white backdrop, other sitters in the exhibition are shown in relation to a specific environment.

More than 500 people posed, danced and joked for the camera.

Now curators at Birmingham Museum want to trace anyone who featured in the photographs. They're hoping to recreate the photography project one day in the near future.

The 'Face the Camera' exhibition started on the 24th August and ends on the 10th November 2002 at Gallery 16, the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.