Early Life and Artistic Beginnings George Phoenix, born George Phoenix Edwards in Wolverhampton in 1863, emerged from a modest background – his father was a hairdresser. From an early age, he demonstrated a clear inclination towards art, studying at the Birmingham School of Art during the late 1870s and early 1880s. The 1881 census records him as a seventeen-year-old “artist (photo),” hinting at an initial exploration of photography b…