MUHAMMAD ALI’S boxing gloves and an Andy Warhol original are just some of the famous items Nigel Goodman has framed during his 31-year career.

The owner of Bitches Brew Picture Framers in Fremantle says he has a diverse client base, from locals wanting their ubiquitous Steve Parish prints framed, to the National Gallery of Australia.

Goodman started his framing career in 1977 in England, and through his work came to meet Fremantle framer Bob Stewart, who’d opened Bitches Brew in Freo in 1983.

• Nigel Goodman at work with another frame at Bitches Brew. Photos by Molly Schmidt

“England was about nine months ahead of Australia in terms of the different demand in art, so we sent a lot of posters to Bob, and Bitches Brew became the first store to bring it to Fremantle,” Goodman says.

Stewart had been a big fan of Miles Davis, naming the shop after one of the famed trumpeter’s jazz fusion albums.

It didn’t take long before Goodman was tempted to relocate  down under, working for a framer in Subiaco until 1987, when Steward died and he took over Bitches Brew.

“I always preferred working for myself rather than working under someone else as it gave me more freedom in my work, I was able to do that at Bitches Brew,” Goodman says.

Located on High Street, the quaint shop has sample frames in the front of the store and a workshop in the back, where all framing is done on-site.

Goodman says his passion and love for his job has kept him going for three decades.

“Our clients become more than customers, we like to know them individually as people,” he says.

“The best part about my job is seeing people’s face when you’ve given them what they want and you have done the job right.”

• Photographer Adam Monk had shared a space with Bitches Brew for 13 years, but a few weeks back he pulled the pin and has moved completely online (we hear Didgeridoo Breath’s doing the same thing). Mr Goodman says he’s opening up the space for casual gallery bookings and first cab off the rank is photographer, Colin Story, whose exhibition is a study of the Naval Base shacks. “The shacks feel squeezed between the marine developments to the north and Alcoa to the south. Their future is always uncertain. They have five year leases and there’s no certainty about what’s going to happen,” says Story.

by NICOLLETTA De GENNARO 

Bitches Brew Custom Picture
Framers, 62 High St,
Fremantle