Award-winning documentary photographer Chris Jepson ARPS captures a landmark portrait of Mayor Amanda Grimshaw BEM – a picture about history, identity and the changing face of civic life
Brighton & Hove’s mayoral portrait for 2025–26 was unveiled on Friday 15 May in the Council Chamber of Brighton Town Hall, photographed by Chris Jepson ARPS, founder of Proud Studios CIC and editor at Scene Magazine.
The portrait marks the close of Cllr Amanda Grimshaw BEM’s mayoral year, one of the most distinctive Brighton & Hove has seen. Shot in the historic Council Chamber where she has presided over the city’s civic life, the image is dense with meaning, layering personal biography, local heritage and the breadth of a mayoralty unlike any before it.
Notably, the portrait was created at no cost to the public purse. Jepson gave his time freely and production costs were covered by private donations, a reflection of the community spirit that has characterised Grimshaw’s year in office as well as her personal popularity.
A mayor unlike those who came before
Amanda Grimshaw was awarded the British Empire Medal for her contributions to community service before taking the mayoral chains. Elected as a Labour councillor in 2019, she served as deputy chair of the Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture Committee, and as chief whip from 2023 to 2025. Following a career in museums, she was a trustee of the Royal Pavilion and Museums Trust and is still a passionate historian and advocate for the city’s veterans and Armed Forces.
She came to education later in life, raised four children, and experienced homelessness and domestic abuse. That she arrived at the mayoralty by that route – and wore the same chains as Brighton’s first Mayor, Colonel John Fawcett, in 1854 – is at the heart of what Jepson’s portrait sets out to say.
The image
Jepson photographed the Mayor in the Council Chamber, beside the portrait of Colonel John Fawcett that hangs in the adjacent Ante Room, the starting point for the Mayor’s own idea. The two portraits now speak directly to one another across 170 years of civic history.
Every detail in the image carries weight. The mayoral mace, a symbol of civic authority, anchors the composition. On Grimshaw’s lapel, an Armed Forces pin marks her long-standing role as the council’s Armed Forces Champion. A rainbow flower and AIDS ribbon sit alongside it as a quiet but deliberate signal of what this mayoralty has stood for, and of the city it represents. Among her chosen mayoral charities was Allsorts Youth Project, Brighton’s LGBTQ+ youth charity.
The suit she wears was made for her by Gresham Blake, the North Laine tailor whose work has been woven into the fabric of Brighton’s civic identity for years. It is cut from the Brighton & Hove Tartan, designed by Gresham Blake himself, and officially certified by the Keeper of the Scottish Register of Tartans. Its colours carry the geography and character of the city: blues for the sea, greens for the South Downs, gold and pink for Brighton’s flamboyance. The tartan requires formal mayoral approval before it can be certified, and that she is now photographed in a suit made from it closes a particular circle.
The photographer
Chris Jepson is an award-winning Brighton-based documentary photographer and the founder of Proud Studios CIC, a community interest company whose long-term portrait projects – including Queer Elders, The Identity Project, and Beyond the Binary – explore LGBTQ+ lives, identity and resilience. His work is regularly published and exhibited across the UK and abroad. He has a close and ongoing relationship with Brighton & Hove Pride as well as many community projects across the wider LGBTQ+ community in the city.
The portrait will hang permanently in Brighton Town Hall as part of the official mayoral record.
Quotes
“Amanda’s story is remarkable, and the way she has given herself so fully to this role, caring genuinely for every person she meets, has been something to witness. Standing in that chamber, beside Fawcett’s portrait, wearing the Brighton tartan, with all that history around us, I wanted to make an image that held all of it. I hope the portrait does her justice.” – Chris Jepson, photographer
“Chris has created something that goes beyond a likeness. It tells a story – of a working-class woman, of resilience, of change and of a city that embraces difference and celebrates progress.” – Cllr Amanda Grimshaw BEM, Mayor of Brighton & Hove 2025–26
Cllr Amanda Grimshaw BEM, Mayor of Brighton & Hove 2025–26, and Chris Jepson, photographer, alongside her Mayoral portrait that will hang permanently in Brighton Town Hall as part of the official mayoral record.