We’re searching for Manchester nightclubbers captured on camera over 30 years ago, in a series of rarely seen photographs by David Chadwick.
In October we’ll launch the next phase of our Cornerhouse Projects exhibitions with We Were All Here, Once, a display of Chadwick’s images of Manchester night spots in the late 1970s and early 1980s including Legends, The Sandpiper and Friday’s, and we’re running an appeal throughout August to identify people captured in these images.
David Chadwick is based in Didsbury and trained at Manchester School of Art in the mid-70s, going on to capture images of Manchester’s night scene when it was a fraction of the size it is today. Having later worked as a commercial photographer and tennis coach he has recently revisited his images of the city’s alternative sub-cultures, which he summarises simply as “young people looking for love.”
The image Girl in a Discotheque, from David’s Looking for Love series, was included in our very own opening exhibition Human Interest back in 1985, and featured in our first ever brochure.
“In those days, sub-cultures like punks and New Romantics invented their own style, and, unlike today, it filtered upwards into mainstream fashion and music,” David says. “Manchester was also very different then, with huge areas of the city centre semi-derelict and unlit. Young people took over the disused warehouses for clubs and studios and made spaces to be creative and ‘find themselves’ – and to connect with others like them.”
“When Cornerhouse opened it was an important change for the arts community in Manchester: it filled a huge cultural gap by representing the here and now. I was thrilled to have my work included in its first exhibition and it seems absolutely fitting to revisit these images here now; it will be wonderful if we can also re-connect the young people captured – now probably in their 50s – with their images from the past.”
Cornerhouse Projects is an opportunity for artists from the North West region, aspiring curators and those wishing to showcase affordable art to showcase their work and test new ideas in our Café and Bar. We Were All Here, Once will be the first time David Chadwick’s unique photographs have been displayed together in public, and all images will be available to buy (approximate A3 print, framed with mount, £180). 100 copies of a signed, numbered print of Girl in a Discotheque, above, will also be available, priced £40 (approximate A4 print, framed with mount).
To view larger images please click here; we don’t have exact dates for the images but they were all taken in the early 1980s.
David Chadwick/ We Were All Here, Once will run on the walls of our Café & Bar between Thu 3 Oct – Tue 5 Nov 2013.