As Manchester gears up to welcome The BRIT Awards for the first time, the city’s iconic Kimpton Clocktower Hotel has today announced a new free exhibition, in partnership with celebrity photographer and filmmaker Steve Read.
Having shot rockstars, rappers, royalty and leading fashion brand campaigns, Read is bringing his collection of celebrity portraits Shooting Stars Pays The Rent to Manchester for the first time. The collection is set to open to the public from Thursday 4th December, and will be available to view for free, on the walls of the hotel’s bar The Refuge.
An intimate retrospective spanning portraits from the late 90’s and early 2000’s, which Read took whilst living and working in Hollywood, the exhibition features a cinematic collection of rappers, rock ’n’ rollers, movie stars and cultural trailblazers, drawn from a time when he was immersed in the grit and glamour.
Coming to Manchester for the first time, after being on display at sister property Kimpton Charlotte Square in Edinburgh, the show features A-Listers such as Ray Liotta, Eminem, Lennox Lewis, Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne, Mickey Rourke and Michael Stipe, to name a few.
The collection presents a particular vision of celebrity culture at the turn of the millennium often mythologised.
With Kimpton Clocktower and The Refuge as the core hosts of the exhibition, additional artwork will also be displayed in partner venues across the city making it a photography trail to follow.
Talking about the exhibition, Steve Read said: “These shots are drawn straight from the archives, they’re not photoshopped, retouched or cropped. Just one square of negative separating the viewer from the sitter. As close as you’ll come to the original moment – honest, unfiltered, and preserved across decades.”
“It’s a collection that doesn’t attempt to rewrite its origins but allows space for reflection – for the viewer and the artist,” added Read.
Shooting Stars Pays The Rent is a free photography exhibition open to the public from Thursday 4th December. It will be on display on the walls of The Refuge within Kimpton Clocktower Hotel, until 1st February 2026.
