Family stories revealed

THE Generations posters also include photographs from the family albums.

The billboard on Wrentham Street in the city centre shows a portrait of Enrichetta Caizzo, 82, and her family alongside her 1959 wedding photo (above) when she married Filippo in Montecilfone, Italy.

They emigrated to Wolverhampton and had three children.

The eldest, Maria, met her husband Davide Pulisciano at an Italian Dance at Edgbaston Reservoir’s Tower Ballroom and they brought up their two children in Ladywood. Enrichetta and Maria are pictured with Claudio, 32, and his daughter Raffaella, three.

Mr Germain said: “These snapshots show another layer of time. Enrichetta’s wedding picture is fantastic. This was a new thing for me, asking people to open up their family albums. People often say they haven’t got anything interesting, but then they’re persuaded to go up into the loft and 15 minutes later there can be tears.”

Mr Germain started his Generations collection in 2004, adding one or two a year until this more intensive work for the Birmingham 2022 Festival. It stemmed from one of his earlier works, called The Face of the Century.

On one of the sites in West Bromwich is Syeda Amina Khatun, 53, the first Bangladeshi woman to be elected to a Midlands council (below). The Labour councillor for Tipton Green is CEO of the Bangladeshi Women’s Association. The eldest of 11 children, she came to the UK with her parents in 1975.

Also in the portrait is her 82-year-old mother, Syeda Nur Bibi, her eldest daughter Syeda Husna Bibi, 33, and granddaughter Alesha Hussain, aged eight. Appropriately, the picture of four women was taken on Mother’s Day.