Wrestling in the North 1980s - Peter Byrne

Wrestling in the North 1980s - Peter Byrne - Café Royal Books

"Growing up in the 1970s, Peter Byrne loved watching professional wrestling on television. He found boxing too violent, but, with wrestling, “you had pure theater, and a great deal of fun. There were guys bashing the hell out of each other, but you kind of knew nobody really got hurt.”

In 1988, Byrne was in his last year as a photography student at Harrogate College of Higher Education in the United Kingdom. For his final project, he spent about three months driving around on Friday and Saturday nights in his friend’s Citroen 2CV photographing professional wrestling events across northern England at venues including the Barnsley Civic, Scunthorpe’s Baths Hall, Wakefield’s Unity Hall, and the Blackpool Tower Circus."

• 36 pages
• printed in the UK
• staple bound
• 14cm x 20cm

About Café Royal Books:

"Café Royal Books is the idea of Craig Atkinson, an artist and lecturer. Our first title was published in 2005.

Craig wanted to create a way to make artwork accessible to a wider audience. The solution needed to be small, functional, open to collaboration, affordable, and work independently of galleries. These ideas remain at the heart of what we do.

We’re a small family-run publisher based in England, next to the woodland, dunes, and windswept beaches of the North West coast — we’re always inspired by the vastness, calm and energy of this environment. 

We make weekly publications, focussing on documentary photography linked to Britain and Ireland, printed and bound locally by a small 170 year old printing company. Libraries and museums around the world collect the books, so the work will remain preserved and accessible for many years. Our books don’t need batteries, or screens. We hope they will be used, create conversation and be passed down through family generations."

Explore other titles from the Café Royal Books collection.

• 36 pages
• printed in the UK
• staple bound
• 14cm x 20cm

About Café Royal Books:

"Café Royal Books is the idea of Craig Atkinson, an artist and lecturer. Our first title was published in 2005.

Craig wanted to create a way to make artwork accessible to a wider audience. The solution needed to be small, functional, open to collaboration, affordable, and work independently of galleries. These ideas remain at the heart of what we do.

We’re a small family-run publisher based in England, next to the woodland, dunes, and windswept beaches of the North West coast — we’re always inspired by the vastness, calm and energy of this environment. 

We make weekly publications, focussing on documentary photography linked to Britain and Ireland, printed and bound locally by a small 170 year old printing company. Libraries and museums around the world collect the books, so the work will remain preserved and accessible for many years. Our books don’t need batteries, or screens. We hope they will be used, create conversation and be passed down through family generations."

Explore other titles from the Café Royal Books collection.