London Photography Exhibitions

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London Photography Exhibitions

This is a London Photography Exhibitions post from our archives. To see the latest London Photography Exhibitions post, click here.

London photography exhibitions this week include Thomas Ruff: Nature morte – a show in which you can explore the photographic negative as the ‘master’ at the Gasgonian Gallery. Over at the Hayward Gallery, on the South Bank, Sara Naim has her ‘Heartstrings’ exhibition on in the café. 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.

Thomas Ruff: Nature morte

Thomas Ruff is one of the most acclaimed and ground-breaking photographers working today. The German artist was taught by Bernd Becher (like Andreas Gursky) and counts Stephen Shore as one of his inspirations. Thomas Ruff sees photography as a very classical medium though photographic techniques evolve. His young daughter once asked him what a Polaroid is and it seems to him the negative will soon disappear.

For Thomas Ruff, the negative was the ‘master’ from which the print was made: he thinks it’s worth looking at these masters. The Gasgonian offers you a chance to do just that in the current London exhibition. The negative is the star of this display featuring his latest work. Also on show is some recent work combines positives and negatives to create photograms: a technique pioneered by Bauhaus artist László Moholy-Nagy early last century. Light-sensitive photographic paper is exposed to light, with subjects placed between the light source and the paper, to create shadows on the print. The result is incredible.

The Gasgonian Gallery is a short walk from Bond Street Tube Station. Consider St. Christopher’s Place, on the other side of Oxford Street (not far from the gallery) for lunch after seeing the display. There is a diverse range of food on offer, with many restaurants offering al fresco dining.

Where: Gasgonian London.
Ends: Saturday, 26th 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: Gasgonian.

Sara Naim: Heartstrings

Sara Naim is a US-based photographer whose work explores the interconnectivity between objects, people and events in everyday life. Her exhibition on show in the Café at the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank features photographs that contrast geographic landscapes with the landscape of the body.

The Hayward Gallery is close to Waterloo Tube Station. You might want to see the Carsten Höller: Decision exhibition while you are there.

Where: Hayward Gallery.
Ends: Sunday, 20th 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: South Bank Centre.


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.

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.

Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860

Captain Linnaeus Tripe was a British, Victorian photographer, a pioneer in photography, was best known for the photographs he made in India and Burma on show in this exhibition. The exhibition features 60 images from paper negatives or calotypes.

“Trip is remarkable for the respect with which he treats the structure of indigenous cultures” FT.

“They’re stunning pictures, but they were tough to get, […] it was a real labour of love.” – Roger Taylor, exhibition curator.

The Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum is in South Kensington, five minutes walk from South Kensington tube station and a short walk from Hyde Park.

Where: V&A Museum.
Ends: Sunday, 11th October, 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: V&A Museum.


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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