Jo (Josephine) Brocklehurst (1935 - 2006) studied at Central Saint Martins and began her career as a fashion illustrator. She later focused on portraiture, drawing directly from models at her studio in West Hampstead and in nightclubs and theatres in Berlin, London and New York. Her work documents the alternative subcultures of the 1970s, 80s and 90s that went on to shape mainstream fashion and performance scenes.

In 1986 Brocklehurst visited the Institute of Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen, Germany during Diskurs Festival. She drew Karl Oppermann and his students performing The Crazy Locomotive, a play written by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz.