Now on in the Exhibition space we are delighted to be hosting an exhibition of photographs by Leeds-based photographer Peter Mitchell from his new book ‘Early Sunday Morning’.

Published by RRB Photobooks, Early Sunday Morning is made up of over 90 largely unseen images of Leeds, each one selected from a cache of five hundred negatives which have sat unseen for over 30 years.

‘Early Sunday Morning’, edited and sequenced by fellow photographer John Myers, takes its name from the Edward Hopper painting depicting a row of closed sidewalk stores; a scene devoid of people and life, a portrait of ordinary and empty architecture.

Anyone familiar with Peter’s images will, no doubt, find a fitting correlation here, with the sense of stillness, the unglamorous and prosaic subject matter, and the sometimes inescapable feeling that the demolition ball is readying itself to fall. 

These unearthed photographs, taken by Peter in the 1970s and 80s, document a real shift in the urban landscape of Leeds, as cobbled streets and Victorian terraces sit flanked by concrete flats and wastelands awaiting the new. 

Famously Peter took many of his photographs while working as a lorry driver, crossing the city and stopping when something caught his gaze. Myers has sequenced these images sympathetically as if walking through the city and discovering it as he goes.

If you walk it now there are remnants to be found, evidence left scattered, buildings that have defied our ceaseless appetite for ‘the new’. The microbes of time continually gnaw away though and one day there’ll be nothing of it left except the images in this book. ‘Early Sunday Morning’ captures an intimate portrait of Leeds through the lens of a man who has lived in his 'life-threatening postcode' for over 40 years and who has continually documented the life of a city in motion.

The book can be purchased here.