SPACE

10 June – 16 July 2005

Arlene Gottfried

Twenty years in the making, Midnight shows the innate dignity of an individual as he struggles to transcend mental illness. Fifty photographic prints chart the dramatic changes in fortune and health of the photographer’s friend, Midnight. In association with Autograph ABP.

Handsome, friendly, and fun to be with - his playfulness and enjoyment of films, art, music, dancing, and singing was absolutely contagious ...I found out later that this very gentle, sensitive soul suffers from schizophrenia. As a friend I tried to help him.... Some days when I came home I found that he had called and left a message on my answering machine. He could be calling from downstairs in the lobby or from anywhere in the USA - once he called me from Puerto Rico.’ Arlene Gottfried

Shown for the first time outside the USA, the work raises issues of how we care for those with mental health problems. However, ‘Midnight’ is not just the documentation of an illness, it is also always the tender portrait of a friend.

African-Caribbean people are over-represented in psychiatric institutions. They are more likely than any other minority group to have a diagnosis of schizophrenia, are most likely (together with Irish-born people) to be detained in locked psychiatric wards and most likely to be treated with higher dosages of medication.’ Mind (National Association for Mental Health)

Arlene Gottfried was born and lives in New York, and freelances for publications including The New York Times Magazine, Fortune, Life, and The Independent. Her work has been exhibited at the Leica Gallery, New York and Tokyo, and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and is collected by the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the New York Public Library and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Berenice Abbott International Competition of Women’s Documentary Photography.

The exhibition will be accompanied by work created by members of Core Arts in the Annexe Gallery, featuring photography and video by artists Frank Bangay, Dieter Cole, Steven Jackson, Jim McDougall, and Debbie McNamara. Core Arts exists to promote the artistic abilities of people who experience mental health problems.

Signed copies of the book ‘Midnight’ will be available for sale on the night of the Private View at a special exhibition discount price of £25 (RRP £32.50).

WARNING – some images are of an explicit sexual nature.
Produced in collaboration with Autograph ABP.