Photography Exhibition by Steve Mead
“The Man Mead Assembly”
Southsea Cinema and Art Centre is proud to present a new photography exhibition by Steve, running from 6th November to 3rd December 2024, as part of our Recovery Festival. The exhibition opens with a Preview on Tuesday 5th November at 5 PM, and all are welcome to attend.
Steve’s exhibition, “The Man Mead Assembly,” offers a powerful and deeply personal glimpse into the artist’s journey. His photographs, created through a visceral and intuitive process, reflect a life lived on the margins of society, battling addiction and illness. As Steve shares, “The pictures speak for themselves. I don’t know where they come from, and I don’t know what they mean.” The title reflects his ongoing assembly of self, a search for acceptance and peace after a lifetime of challenges.
A recovering addict and artist with a history of over 40 years of substance use, Steve is now 64 years old and living with severe lung and heart disease. His work in “The Man Mead Assembly” mirrors his path of recovery, connection, and survival. Through photography, Steve finds beauty even in the darkest places, using the medium to express what words cannot.
This exhibition is a significant part of our ‘Recovery Festival’, celebrating the journeys of those in recovery. Steve’s work stands as a testament to resilience and transformation, offering a moving experience for all who attend.
Join us at the Southsea Cinema and Art Centre to celebrate the work of a remarkable artist who comes from Recovery, and whose story will inspire and move audiences.
Artist Statement
the man mead assembly
Then, early this Sunday morning, sitting outside, seeing trees. Soul searching.
Came into my mind, an artist, I forget who, saying, “An artist should be showing how it is now.”
True grit.
True beauty.
So here goes…
I’m a junkie in recovery, and relapse.
But I do know what I feel.
And all I have experienced.
And how I have to make peace with all this,
Seek beauty, but I have seen horror, in real world.
I still don’t know who I am.
Am I who I am when I react in any particular incident?
That instant that I take the shot?
That instant, when I have to react to a situation?
I never bought into what society as selling. I lived amongst it, but never felt part of it. And I found other souls on their journeys too. True connection, no matter how brief.
And I have been working on myself for over 40 years.
I had a creative, inquisitive, drive, from a young child. But this was never nurtured, encouraged or educated.
I am seriously ill with lung and heart disease. I couldn’t breathe, had no energy, no future. I played down to die, and was using heroin, at 64.
Then on the 4th July, Independence Day, I was pulled, violently and in handcuffs, from my death bed. My bail conditions, on phoney charges, effectively made me homeless and I have been given sanctuary by kind, big hearted people.
the man mead assembly.
How do I put this all together,
to assemble, this man,
mead.
Get me?
From as long as I can remember, I felt like I didn’t fit in. I didn’t feel as other people appeared. When I began school, aged five, it took me little more than an hour to decide that it wasn’t the place for me, and I walked out at the first break time. Needless to say, my mother took me back.
Growing up in the 1960s and 70s, most of my time was spent outside of the house, and every time I went out, I thought I would find treasure, something special. I was a romantic, and a vandal.
I drifted through school, and through life. I didn’t buy what society was selling.
I have been a criminal, run away with the circus, had a stall on Portobello Road, made furniture, worked in rehabs, and raised two children, alone.
I have used drugs for over 40 years of my life, but have also been on a journey of personal growth since 1982. I have been in recovery for the past 17 years, following a spiritual path. But relapse is often part of that experience.
I am now 64 years old, and I have serious health issues. The prognosis is that I don’t have much time left.
The name came about as a pseudonym I used when I first joined facebook.
From young, I had a strong creative drive, but this was not nurtured, educated nor expressed. Until I began taking photographs on my first smartphone. I soon realised that my day felt better if I took photographs. If I expressed what was going on in me. If I allowed life to flow through me.
So the title, the name, is about the assembly of me, the man, mead. It is about the discovery and acceptance of me as I travel through this life.
Photography, making pictures, connects me to the world, after having spent a lot of my life trying to disconnect from it. From looking at the ground, it lifted my head to looking around me, and I saw wonderful things. Be it a stunning vista, or an abstract shape. Something in my chest gives me a reaction, it tells me to take the shot.
The photographer, Keith Carter, once said,
“Just grab the picture. You’ve got the rest of your life to work out what it means.”
So that’s all I do really. I grab the picture. A few I edit. A few I sell. A few I post.
What the picture means? Well, maybe that is between the picture and the viewer, who am I to say? For me it is a medium of expression that doesn’t use words. And that, I find most helpful.
the man mead assembly ––
Facebook/themanmeadassembly
Instagram/mam.mead
For more information, please contact:
Southsea Cinema and Art Centre
Email: admin@southseacinema.co.uk
