The photograph captures Reginald "Reggie" Blackwood at the pinnacle of his hubristic salesmanship. Standing before a packed City Council chamber, the bombastic leader presents an array of sleek, white architectural models representing his grand vision for the city's future.
Blackwood's hands, clasped almost in prayer toward the modernist high-rise designs. Rendered in sterile minimalism, these pristine, imaginary buildings seem to glow with promise and utopian connotations of revitalisation under the harsh lighting.
In this pivotal 1962 ‘Renaissance Initiative’ session, the Labour firebrand meant to awe colleagues into supporting architect Thomas Danielson's radical urban renewal proposals . With his trademark mix of cheery promotion and bulldozer bluntness, Blackwood proclaimed the ageing neighbourhoods as "crumbling slums in dire need of renewal."
The metamorphic models were his Trojan horses; dazzling symbols crafted to demolish any opposition to clearing out obsolete communities for Danielson's futuristic plazas and towers. Seized by dreams of economic revival, few could resist Blackwood's zeal in promising a remade, rejuvenated North East forged in concrete and glass against the ashes of the past.
For Blackwood's critics, however, the photograph represents the moment their leader prioritised cold, abstract renderings over compromising with those whose real homes, histories and humanity were to be erased. Despite dissent, he used his formidable powers and that of developers like Danielson to replace human fabric with steel and cement icons of progress - no matter the cost.
