slaughter
house
presents….

amour propre no.1

Photography by Caroline Edge, Peter Defty and Sebastian Meyer

Slaughterhouse Studios is proud to present the first installment of their amour propre exhibition series. Launching at a private viewing on October 1st and running until November 5th, the exhibition is curated by Kelda Savage and includes work by photographers Caroline Edge, Peter Defty and Sebastian Mayer.

Based in Manchester, Caroline Edge has recently visited Cuba and had the rare opportunity to witness and document the mysterious and secret world of a voodoo ceremony.

Peter Defty is based in the North East and this exhibition will be a rare opportunity to see work from his twenty year career of providing strong images of architecture and interiors alongside several of his own long term personal projects such as his Alphatecture Series.

Sebastian Meyer is an award-winning American photojournalist based in Iraq.  He has been published in numerous newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Magazine, TIME, and The Wall Street Journal. Sebastian’s images document the celebration of Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, from either side of the Kurdistan-Iraq border.

Kelda Savage is a curator, artist and writer. She has organised exhibitions for Manchester Craft & Design Centre, Urbis, MIMA, Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair and Arts Ornata Europeana. She has shown her own work in Turin, Berlin, Madrid and New York.

This exhibition is part of the amour propre series at Slaughterhouse Studios, designed to highlight quality lens based artists who contribute to the advancement of this art form and whose images display the necessary self respect for the process of photography.

Ian Simpson, co-owner of Slaughterhouse Studios, notes that “this will be a fantastic opportunity to see some powerful, fascinating and ingenious images by three talented photographers right here in Gtr Manchester” and is adamant that Slaughterhouse Studios’ exhibition series is “destined to become an important addition to the cultural map of the North West, and an innovative, well respected and forward thinking studio and exhibition venue.”

Launch event Friday 1 October 6 – 9pm. By invitation only
Exhibition continues until Friday 5 November 2010.
Open Monday to Friday 10am – 8pm.
All welcome, admission free. All work for sale.

More about the artists

Based in Manchester, Caroline Edge has recently visited Cuba and had the rare opportunity to witness and document the mysterious and secret world of a voodoo ceremony.

Palo Mayombe is a religion rooted in the Congo basin of Africa, developed in Cuba by slaves who were transported from Africa to work in the sugar and tobacco plantations. The religion combines veneration of the dead with a belief in the forces of nature. The photographed ceremony is a form of Palo known as Palo Cristiano which uses Catholic iconography such as saints and crosses, alongside natural totems.

Caroline recently completed an MA in Photography at Bolton University an MA in Documentary Photography. She was awarded the 2009 Humphrey Spender Scholarship and has exhibited at the Photographer’s Gallery, London, Bolton Museum, No Soap Gallery, Siberia and in Lourdes, France.

Peter Defty started his photography career at Newcastle College. Based in the North East and twenty years on he has achieved an enviable balance of satisfying both his commercial clients with strong images of architecture and interiors alongside his own personal interests and several long term personal projects such as his Alphatecture Series.

The result of both analogue and digital technologies working side-by-side Peter’s photographs are derived from the best of both worlds.

His reputation has ensured his work has been seen all over the world including Japan, Egypt, Europe, and Russia. Subjects vary from the structures of concrete jungles such as London and New York, to the bamboo forests of Japan and the crumbling facades of Venice to rivers of Yorkshire.

Sebastian Meyer is an award-winning American photojournalist based in Iraq.  He has been published in numerous newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Magazine, TIME, and The Wall Street Journal.  He was a finalist in the 2009 BJP Photo of the Year and was selected to show work in the 2010 Foto8 Summershow.

Sebastian’s images document two festivals celebrating Newroz, the Kurdish New Year held on March 21st every year. This date also marks the vernal equinox and the first day of spring. One collection shows The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish guerrilla group, listed as a terrorist organisation by the USA and EU, and its supporters in the Qandil Mountains on the Iraq Turkey border. Meanwhile, in Iraq, the residents of the city of Akre drape a 60m Kurdish flag from the Kele Mountain. Kurdish men light torches and then march to the top of the mountain as part of the Newroz festival.

Kelda Savage is a curator, artist and writer. She has organised exhibitions for Manchester Craft & Design Centre, Urbis, mima, Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair and Ars Ornata Europeana. She has shown her own work in Turin, Berlin, Madrid and New York.

Slaughterhouse Studios Ltd
54 Oldfield Road
M5 4LZ
0161 745 4232
info@slaughterhousestudios.co.uk