London Photography Exhibitions
London Photography Exhibitions
London photography exhibitions this week include the first ever London photography exhibition for John Waters, at Sprüth Magers, and, since it’s summer, the Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY). John Waters, the director of cult film ‘Hairspray’, brings his photography to the capital for a fantastic exhibition. Read on for information on these and some of the other ten best London photography exhibitions on now. Note that some of the London photography exhibitions are closing soon. More details below.
See the regularly updated London Photography Galleries list. The London Photography Galleries list compliments this post on London Photography Exhibitions, with information on opening times and maps.
John Waters: Beverly Hills John
Closing soon.
John Waters is probably best known for his film Hairspray (1988) – which later became a Broadway hit. He embarked on his photo-based work in the 1990s. Sprüth Magers bring his art to London in a fantastic exhibition in which John Waters hopes to resolve issues about childhood fame, false glamour, the horrors of nouveau-riche excess, his ongoing sexual attractions and the possible risk of ‘careericide’ with dignity. One highlight has to be digitally edited images of Justin Bieber alongside Hollywood’s leading pooch.
“Waters excels at striking a balance between brutality and humour, defamation and care” – Sprüth Magers.
Sprüth Magers is in Mayfair, a short walk from Green Park tube station. Sushi fans might want to get lunch at nearby Nobu on Berkeley Street after seeing the exhibition.
Closing soon.
Where: Sprüth Magers.
Ends: Saturday, 15th August, 2015.
See the London Photography Galleries list which compliments this London Photography Exhibitions post and is regularly updated with information on opening times and maps.
More information: Sprüth Magers.
Travel Photographer of the Year
Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) returns to the Royal Geographical Society in South Kensington, featuring the work of photographers from over 100 countries. This year, the organisers are putting on ‘Enchanted Evenings‘ – special events with opportunities to meet the judges.
The Royal Geographical Society is at the top of Exhibition Road, on the corner with Kensington Gore, just a stone’s throw from Hyde Park and the Royal Albert Hall. If you’re walking up from South Kensington tube station, you might want to stop off at the V&A Museum to see the Captain Linnaeus Tripe exhibition (more details below).
Where: Royal Geographical Society.
Ends: Saturday, 15th August, 2015.
See the London Photography Galleries list which compliments this London Photography Exhibitions post and is regularly updated with information on opening times and maps.
More information: Travel Photographer of the Year.
Vivian Maier
Vivian Maier, intensely guarded and private, was not know for her photographic work during her life. She was a prolific street photographer, though her work was only discovered in 2007 when a massive hoard of 100,000 negatives from her storage locker was auctioned off. John Maloof, a history enthusiast discovered the negatives and started sharing them, generating significant interest. This lead to the creation of a documentary. “Finding Vivian Maier” which set about answering the question of who the elusive Vivian Maier was. The documentary leads you to ask as many questions as it answers. One thing is certain – Vivian Maier was a great talent with an intriguing character.
This Beetles+Huxley exhibition showcase Vivian Maier’s street photography as well as her staged portraits. The hand printed photographs are made from Vivian Maier’s negatives and some are being shown in London for the first time.
“Her photographs […] are witty and intelligent, and charged with a strong sense of empathy” Beetles+Huxley.
“She is now seen as one of the great photographers of the 20th century” – IB Times.
Beetles+Huxley is just off Piccadilly, not far from Fortnum & Masons or the Royal Academy of Arts and a short walk from Regent’s Street.
Where: Beetles+Huxley.
Ends: Saturday, 5th September, 2015.
See the London Photography Galleries list which compliments this London Photography Exhibitions post and is regularly updated with information on opening times and maps.
More information: Beetles+Huxley.
Simon Norfolk: Time Taken
Simon Norfolk is a landscape photographer,
His book, “For Most of it I have no Words” – in which he turned his lenses to areas which have witnessed genocide – received an award from the Foreign Press Club of America. While his later book “Bleed” treated the aftermath of the war in Bosnia.
Time Taken is the Michael Hoppen Gallery’s third Simon Norfolk exhibition. The display features images made by Simon Norfol in 2013 & 2014 in th Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan. The region was once known for the immense 170 foot standing Buddhas carved into cliff faces. The focus of the images is the present and how the recent conflict has left the region. Simon Norfolk captured the same spots over a year to chart the shifting landscape.
“Simon Norfolk is a very talented driven young photographer who is pursuing one of life’s big questions with intensity and focused intention.” – Jim Casper, Lens Culture
The Michael Hoppen Gallery is in Chelsea, just off the King’s Road, a short walk from South Kensington tube station or slightly further from Sloane Square.
Where: Michael Hoppen Gallery.
Ends: Tuesday, 8th September, 2015.
See the London Photography Galleries list which compliments this London Photography Exhibitions post and is regularly updated with information on opening times and maps.
More information: Michael Hoppen Gallery.
Hannah Collins
Hannah Collins’ photographs “can be experienced as an image and as a kind of architecture; as two-dimensional surface and as sculpture.” Iwona Blazwick . Hannah is a contemporary British artist whose works treat the collective experiences of memory, history and the everyday. The Camden Arts exhibition features the large unframed style of artwork she has become known for. The exhibition attempts to reveal Collins’ capacity to convey the emotional and psychological aspects of spaces steeped in cultural and social history”.
Camden Arts is just off on the Finchley Road, moments from Finchley Road & Frognall Overground station.
Where: Camden Arts Centre.
Ends: Sunday, 13th September, 2015.
See our London Photography Galleries list which compliments this London Photography Exhibitions post and is regularly updated with information on opening times and maps.
More information: Camden Arts.
Raymond Cauchetier’s New Wave
Closing soon.
Raymond Cauchetier is an influential French photographer, best-known for capturing some of the most iconic images which epitomised the seminal films of the French New Wave (La Nouvelle Vague), from which this James Hyman exhibition borrows its name. Raymond Cauchetier’s New Wave staged to coincide with his 95th birthday includes never-before-editioned photographs selected from Cauchetier’s own private archive. The Raymond Cauchetier’s New Wave follows on from Raymond Cauchetier’s first solo London show, held at the James Hyman Gallery in 2010.
Cauchetier’s style is engaging. He is an invisible man, giving the perspective of a fly-on-the-wall during the making of a great film, long before behind-the-scenes publicity shots became ubiquitous.
“A great movie is a universe, the galaxies are intertwined with an apparent and deceptive ease.” Raymond Cauchetier
Famously, when invited to join the elite Magnum agency by Henri-Cartier Bresson, Cauchetier declined: he refused to buy the required Leica camera, preferiing to stick with his trusted Rollieflex camera. Being self-taught himself, the only advice Cauchetier offers photographers is: “follow your own path, and do not listen to advice“.
Closing soon.
Where: James Hyman Gallery.
Ends: Saturday, 15th August, 2015.
See our London Photography Galleries list which compliments this London Photography Exhibitions post and is regularly updated with information on opening times and maps.
More information: James Hyman Gallery.
Shirley Baker: Women, Children and Loitering Men
Shirley Baker, who died last year, was a photographer who chronicled and celebrated life in the streets of working class Manchester. In fact she was thought to be the only woman practising street photography in postwar Britain. She was active at a time when the slums were being demolished to be replaced by tower blocks. Her work included children playing in the rubble of destroyed houses. It was poignant yet conveyed her gentle humour.
The Photographers’ Gallery exhibition is a documentary depicting the clearance programme in inner city Manchester and Salford between 1961 and 1981. The northern industrial towns were often painted as being grim places full of poverty, privation and unemployment during the mid-twentieth century. Shirley Baker set about dispelling the myth, revealing Manchester from a different angle: she is now credited for both portraying the poverty and the resilience of Britain’s fractured postwar society.
The exhibition includes previously unseen colour images by Shirley Baker, as well as the black and white images she was known for. The is opens at the Photographers’ Gallery. The Photographers’ Gallery is by Liberty of London, not far from either Oxford Street or Regent Street. There is a great café which also serves nice salads, tea, coffee and cakes.
Where: The Photographers’ Gallery.
Ends: Sunday, 20th September, 2015.
See our regularly updated page on London Photography Galleries to compliment this post on London Photography Exhibitions for information on opening times and maps.
More information: The Photographers’ Gallery.
Beneath the Surface
Closing soon.
Beneath the Surface was commissioned by Photo London 2015 at Somerset House, and was the highlight exhibition of the whole fair. The exhibitions showcases more than 200 works from the Victoria & Albert Museum archives. The works include images from William Strudwick, Victor Prout and Charles Thurston – pioneers of early photography. The exhibition is not limited to the 19th century though; the work of Thurston Hopkins, John Gay and Brassaï is also displayed. The name of the show ‘Beneath the Surface’ is a metaphor reflecting the depth of the V&A collection.
“What’s most impressive about this collection is the sheer range of work on display” Aesthetica
Somerset House is on the Strand, by Waterloo Bridge and a couple of minutes walk from Covent Garden.
Where: Somerset House.
Closing soon.
Ends: Monday, 24th August, 2015.
See our regularly updated page on London Photography Galleries to compliment this post on London Photography Exhibitions for information on opening times and maps.
More information: Somerset House.
Christina Broom: Soldiers and Suffragettes
Free admission
Christina Broom is considered the United Kingdom’s first, female, professional press photographer and her work from the early 20th century on show in this exhibition reveals her unique observations of London at that time. the work on show, developed from a private collection of over 300 glass plates includes fantastic Suffragettes processions and events.
This exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands, is the first ever exhibition dedicated to the photography of Christina Broom 70 years after her death.
“The pioneer finally gets the exhibition she deserves” – Independent.
Images include a portrait of King Edward VII with the Royal Family (including future King George V, grandson of Queen Victoria and grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II) at the Duke of Yorks’ School in Chelsea from 1908.
There is a special event next Thursday (25th June): Christina Broom: Close Up, at the Museum of London, Docklands. Tickets can be bought in advance (discount code available).
The Museum of London Docklands is right by West India Quay in the Docklands tube station and only moments from Canary Wharf.
Free admission
Where: Museum of London Docklands.
Ends: Sunday, 1st November, 2015.
See our regularly updated page on London Photography Galleries to compliment this post on London Photography Exhibitions for information on opening times and maps.
More information: Museum of London.
Revelations: Experiments in Photography
The Science Museum follows on from the Drawn by Light exhibition, which showcased over 150 years of photography from the Royal Photographic Society archive. Revelations while covering a similar period has a scientific focus, exploring the role of photograph in Science and “featuring some of the rarest images from the pioneers of photography”.
“The curators should be commended for making this potentially overwhelming subject into a show that engages on many levels, social, scientific, historic, and visual”. Telegraph
Where: Science Museum.
Ends: Sunday, 13th September, 2015.
See our recently updated page on London Photography Galleries to compliment this post on London Photography Exhibitions for information on opening times and maps.
More information: Science Museum.
That’s it for this week’s London Photography Exhibitions, look out for next week’s list of London Photography Exhibitions!
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