The exhibit Oraien Catledge: Cabbagetown, now on view at Opal Gallery, displays 30 of some 50,000 images taken by photographer Oraien Catledge in the small Atlanta neighborhood from the late 1970s through the ’90s. Here, Catledge discusses a few of the works in the show and some from his broader collection with CL’s Chad Radford and Opal Gallery director Connie Lewis.
ORAIEN CATLEDGE: The photographer holds up one of his images of Cabbagetown as he knew it more than 20 years ago.
Oraien Catledge first stumbled upon Cabbagetown while sitting on his couch one evening in the fall of 1978. He was flipping through the local news channels when he came across a town meeting in which citizens were discussing the fate of their community. The nearly 100-year-old Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills had closed their doors for the last time, and a lot of the locals – vestiges of an honest-to-goodness factory town that stood in the mills’ shadows – were destitute. Many of the people living in Cabbagetown in the late ’70s were direct descendents of the workers imported from Appalachia to work at the mills since their construction in 1881. But much of the property would soon be up for sale to the rest of the city, and it seemed that the tight-knit community would unravel. “As they used to say, that was preee-sactly the moment that I learned about Cabbagetown,” Catledge chuckles through a bushy, snowy white mustache.
Catledge, 81, is an Oxford, Miss., native who moved to Atlanta in 1969 while working as a regional consultant for the American Association for the Blind. “I wasn’t a photographer back then and I knew nothing about photography, but I had an urge to do something creative,” he says. “I tried painting but the canvases just wouldn’t dry fast enough, so I went out and I got a camera.”
Catledge is legally blind, but dismisses his condition as a disadvantage. In a soft, grandfatherly voice, he says, “Oh … I can see a lot better than most people think I can.”
Continue Reading “Photographer Oraien Catledge remembers Cabbagetown”
(Photos by Joeff Davis)
Teenage girl in dress sitting on step #309, 1982 by Oraien Catledge
TGIF, the weekend is here! Get some of your workday yayas out at one of these art events. This week’s agenda is loaded with nostalgia, celebrity, and packs some artist punch … literallly. As usual, read on for the rundown.
Continue reading “Weekend Arts Agenda: Broadening your horizons” »
Who is Etienne Abobi? Well, he’s from the small French/German border town Saint-Avold; he’s been a deputy consul at the French Consulate in Atlanta for the past two years; and he’s the man behind the AKA Photo Project — a small collective of “accidental artists” currently exhibiting its debut show, Face à Face, at Little Five Points’ Opal Gallery through Nov. 13.
I don’t think many people are aware that there’s a French Consulate in Atlanta, let alone a tight-knit French community here. Could you talk about the French presence in Atlanta?
We have had the consulate since 1989 and our last Bastille day was at the [International] school and the theme was the 20th anniversary of the French consulate in Atlanta. So far we don’t have a French school, we have the International School with the French section, but we have some different kinds of schools. You have International Community School, which specializes in refugees who are native French speakers. In the greater Atlanta area, almost 3,000 people are registered but we think we are really two times this number.
Untitled, Sovereign Tree (kingfisher branch) by Todd Murphy
The Atlanta art scene serves up some seasonal spooky shows as well as some great opportunities to meet local artists this weekend. Read on for the rundown.
1) Greg Fitzsimmons performs at the Punchline.
2) Graveyard Tavern holds Make Homelessness History, a benefit/dance party.
3) The Fiery Furnaces perform at Variety Playhouse.
4) Laughing Skull Lounge hosts the Marijuana-logues.
5) Children opens at Opal Gallery.
(Photo courtesy Super Artists)
Carl Martin is the photographer behind last summer’s exhibit curated by Samuel Fogarino, the writer more widely known as the drummer for Interpol. In his series shot in Athens, Ga., and in his Men of Georgia, Martin’s photos have a consistent aura. His subjects remain locked in the middle ground, where they engage the viewer in a moment of arrested intimacy. It’s as if we were about to make friends, but somehow can’t. Like this lady, a regular backyard empress. What’s her story?
However, his latest series will take a different route. Opening this Thurs. Aug. 20 from 6-9 p.m. at Opal Gallery, Carl Martin’s Children comprises portraits of children ranging from ten months to eight years old. By seizing the imagery of the classic “billfold snapshot,” Martin hopes to discover the “nuance of perspective” of each child as an individual — rather than merely as someone else’s kid. He further challenges us to consider: What do these pictures reveal about our culture as a whole?
(It also might be interesting to compare Martin’s show with Craig Hawkins’ anti-portraits, currently on view at Mason Murer Fine Art.)
(Photo by Carl Martin/flyer courtesy Opal Gallery)
1) Matthew H. Bernstein discusses Screening a Lynching at Decatur Library.
2) Beauty from the Beast continues at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center Gallery.
3) The Balkans and Abby Go Go play 529.
4) Brian Ray discusses Through the Pale Door at Opal Gallery.
5) The Hurt Locker continues in area theaters.
(Photo by Don Chambers)
1) Gladys Knight and Smokey Robinson perform at Chastain Park Amphitheatre.
2) Murray Browne discusses The Book Shopper at Opal Gallery.
3) Vegan Coke and Scarab play Eyedrum.
4) G2: Transformations continues at Swan Coach House.
5) The Earl Smith Strand Theatre hosts Triple Feature Indie Night.
1) Under the Sea continues at Fernbank Museum of Natural History.
2) Richard Doster discusses his book, Crossing the Lines, at Opal Gallery.
3) Puppets Take Atlanta & Beyond kicks off with The Box? A Show of Feelings.
4) Only Dick, No Jane continues at Trois Gallery.
5) Public Enemies continues in area theaters.
(Photo © Jeff Wildermuth/Warner Bros. Entertainment)
For his second novel, Crossing the Lines, Atlanta author Richard Doster resurrects small-town sports writer Jack Hall. When Hall interviews for a job at the Atlanta Constitution in the fall of 1955, he expects to end up covering the Atlanta Crackers, a team he calls “the New York Yankees of minor league baseball, the best team ever assembled in a Southern city.” Outside of some experience helping a black baseball player sign to an all-white team (the subject of Doster’s first novel, Safe at Home), he’s less than concerned about the burgeoning set of conflicts materializing into a Civil Rights Movement outside his front door. Being a white, middle-class guy means he doesn’t want to be bothered by it all, it seems. But Ralph McGill, his new editor at the Constitution, doesn’t give him that option.
Continue reading “Crossing the Lines revisits the Civil Rights Movement”
(Image courtesy Richard Doster)
1) Adron performs at the Star Bar.
2) Screen on the Green comes to a close with viewer’s choice Ghostbusters.
3) Charis Books & More hosts a panel discussion in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
4) Land Marks opens at Opal Gallery.
5) Those Darlins play at the Drunken Unicorn.
(Photo by Gray Scott)
NOT JUST NOSTALGIA: A photo from Michael Varisco's 'Land Marks' series at Opal Gallery.
The VESTIGES Project is a collective of artists and writers based in New Orleans, a “vestigial burg” that, as one member puts it, has become “the biggest vestige-display territory” in the nation. But what’s a vestige, you ask? Don’t worry: I had to look it up, too.
Let’s ask the wise and almighty InterWeb:
ves⋅tige
-noun
1. a mark, trace, or visible evidence of something that is no longer
2. a surviving evidence or remainder of some condition, practice, etc
In the original Latin, vestige referred to a footprint. In biology, the term could be used to specifically describe the human tailbone, i.e. evolutionary features that are, for lack of a better word, obsolete. But in the context of Opal Gallery’s newest photography exhibition, you can think of it as the dwindling footprints of a city’s evolution, or, specifically, the evolution of New Orleans and what it means to live there both pre- and post-Katrina.
Continue reading “Land Marks: For the love of books and photography” »
Forgive the short notice: If you love photography — or French culture — you should definitely check out Opal Gallery’s new exhibition, Foto Povera 5: Atlanta. Thankfully, Opal’s centrally located L5P storefront should make it easy for you to drop by. The reception is tonight, June 4, from 6-9 p.m.!
More from Opal:
This informal collective of French and Atlanta-based artists brings together talented photographers who take an alternative approach to their medium by using a variety of of non-traditional and “toy cameras” such as sténopé, Holga, Diana, and Brownie box. The images on display represent a unique translation of photography with cameras that are often referred to as “primitive” in the modern world of digital technology. By embracing the constraints of these non-traditional cameras, they aim to capture a precariousness and spontaneity that they believe to be much greater than the resulting image.
Need more reasons to go? I personally expect the opening to be at least partially bilingual. Opal owner Constance Lewis (featured in our recent Happy Issue) has several old connections to France. And although the show’s curator credit goes to Yannick Vigouroux, some of Lewis’ own photography will appear alongside works by other members of the Foto Povera collective. Even if you aren’t a raving Francophile, the reception still promises a unique experience.
(Photo by Bruno Debon)
