ACP 11 participating venue Opal Gallery has an opening this Thursday night (7-9pm) with work from Oraien Catledge. There’ll be an artist talk on Saturday at noon, as well.

“Opal Gallery is pleased to present ORAIEN CATLEDGE: Cabbagetown portraits by Atlanta-based photographer Oraien Catledge. For over twenty-five years, Oraien Catledge used his camera to document and celebrate the people of Cabbagetown–Atlanta’s own historic mill village. This exhibition represents an intimate survey of Catledge’s friends and acquaintances and reveals a deep affection for this unique community. Catledge’s direct approach to photography recalls the work of Walker Evans by finding a balance between documentary and artistic impulse. Each image is a trove of hundreds of discrete photographic facts of a familiar landscape and the people who created it, and by all accounts reaffirms his position as an important contributer to the history of American photography.

Oraien Catledge was born in Tutwiler, Mississippi in 1928. He was self-taught as a photographer and came to his vocation near the end of his career with the American Foundation for the Blind. His photographs can be found nationally and internationally in private and public collections including The Museum of Contemporary Art, Ga., and Hartsfield International Airport. He lives in Decatur with his wife Sue.”

•