London Photography Exhibitions April 2018

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London Photography Exhibitions April 2018


April starts with London photography exhibitions from the two fathers of Street Photography. That is William Klein and Robert Frank. The William Klein show is at Hackelbury in South Kensington. Meanwhile Robert Frank work is on show at two Mayfair galleries. At Hamiltons a new Robert Frank solo show has just opened. Not too far away at Huxley-Parlour, the The American Document continues. That show features Dorothea Lange, Diane Arbus and Lee Friedlander as well as Robert Frank.

While those shows are all free to see, there are also paid exhibitions worth a visit. These include London’s first Andreas Gursky retrospective, Victorian Giants and Another Kind of Life. As well as those, Women Looking at Women, at the new Richard Saltoun gallery is closing soon. Read on for further details, lower down.

See the regularly updated London Photography Galleries list. The London Photography Galleries list compliments this post on London Photography Exhibitions. It contains information such as opening times and maps for the London photography exhibitions.

Robert Frank

Just opened.
Free admission.
Robert Frank is a Swiss born photographer. He changed photography when he moved across the Atlantic and produced his book ‘The Americans‘. Even before the book, he garnered support for his unconventional approach, creating a new brand of independently produced street photography. The Americans began a new era in Documentary Photography. Previously the field was about drawing attention to a cause. In contrast, Robert Frank’s photography showed everyday America and ordinary Americans just as they were. At the time it was more common for photographers to publish in magazines rather than books. By persevering with finding a publisher, Robert Frank was able to have more artistic control over his on his work.

Hamiltons present Frank work, not just from America, but also captures made in London and Paris. His seminal trip to a coal-mining village in Wales also makes an appearance. Hamiltons Gallery is in Mayfair, close to Grosvenor Square and a short walk from Green Park tube station. Nobu, on Berkeley street is on the way back to the tube station, if you fancy stopping off for some sushi.

There is also some Robert Frank work on show now at Huxley-Parlour.

Just opened.
Free admission.
Where: Hamiltons.
Ends: Friday, 11th May.
See the London Photography Galleries. That list compliments this London Photography Exhibitions post. We regularly update the list with information on opening times and maps as well as other useful details.
More information: Hamiltons.
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Women Look at Women

Closing soon.
Free admission.
Women look at Women is the inaugural exhibition at the new Richard Saltoun Gallery. The work of twelve artists is displayed including Eleanor Antin and Renate Bertlmann. Featuring only work by female artists of female subjects, the show explores feminine identity.

Richard Saltoun is in Dover Street in Mayfair and an equally short walk from Green Park or Bond Street stations. Huxley-Parlour is also quite close.

Closing soon.
Free admission.
Where: Richard Saltoun.
Ends: Saturday, 31st March.
See the London Photography Galleries. That list compliments this London Photography Exhibitions post. We regularly update the list with information on opening times and maps as well as other useful details.
More information: Richard Saltoun.
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William Klein: Fashion + Light

Free admission.
William Klein is one of the world’s most influential photographers. Along with Robert Frank (whose work is on show at Hamiltons at the moment), Klein is considered a father of street photography. His fashion work for Vogue was famed. The approach was unconventional, using a wide-angle, lens close up, often outside with natural lighting.

Hackelbury show abstract light images as well as William Klein fashion work. The studio light images predate his fashion work and can be seen on the lower level of the gallery. There is also some rare fashion work as well as the more well-known pieces. If you got to see William Klein + Daido Moriyama at The Tate Modern in 2012, you will definitely recognise some of the pieces. The rare fashion work is studio based using light painting, which the gallery only convinced Klein to release in 2015.

Hackelbury is in South Kensington close to both Gloucester Road and High Street Kensington stations. The gallery staff are surely the most welcoming in London. They are also very knowledgable. Be sure to ask to see Klein’s portrait of footballer Eric Cantona in the end room.

Free admission.
Where: Hackelbury.
Ends: Saturday, 2nd June.
See the London Photography Galleries. That list compliments this London Photography Exhibitions post. We regularly update the list with information on opening times and maps as well as other useful details.
More information: Hackelbury.
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The American Document: New Visions in Documentary Photography 1931 – 1976

Free admission.
The American Document, in brief, is a show of over 40 major American works. Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange feature in work from as far back as 1931. Alongside, is more recent work from Robert Frank, Winogrand and Arbus.

Although Evans was a major influence for Frank, the contrast in styles is clear. Robert Frank’s book, ‘The Americans‘ marked a turning point in American documentary photography. The Americans showed Americans “as they were”, in real life. In addition this was a show of artistic independence: his work appeared in his own book, not a magazine, as was more common.

Later, a new trend emerged, this time highlighted by a New York MoMA show called ‘New Documents‘. New Documents introduced Diane Arbus along with Friedlander. Gary Winogrand’s work also featured in the show though this was not his first at MoMA. Winogrand appeared in ‘Five Unrelated Photographers‘ at MoMA in 1963. Again, in contrast to Evans and Lange, New Documents was not centred around a social cause. Instead they wanted to show life as it is rather than reform it. This is a marked departure from Lange and Evans’ work commissioned to win backing for a policy to reduce poverty.

Diane Arbus

You can also see Diane Arbus work at the current Barbican exhibition. There are more details on ‘Another Kind of Life’ further down.

Huxley-Parlour is just off Piccadilly. With Fortnum & Mason and the Royal Academy of Arts nearby, it is a short walk from Regent’s Street.

Free admission.
Where: Huxley-Parlour.
Ends: Saturday, 14th April.
See the London Photography Galleries. That list compliments this London Photography Exhibitions post. We regularly update the list with information on opening times and maps as well as other useful details.
More information: Huxley-Parlour.
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Philip Jones Griffiths: PJGX

Free admission.
Philip Jones Griffiths, Welsh photojournalist, is chiefly known for his work during the Vietnam War. Significantly, this exhibition marks the tenth anniversary of his passing. Notably the Philip Jones Griffiths Foundation and Magnum Photos made the show possible. The foundation was established in 2000 to further education in the art and science of photography.

Although Griffiths’ Vietnam work is his most recognised, the show does not just focus on that body of work. In fact additionally, there is British documentary work from the 1950s to 70s.

TJ Boulting is in Fitzrovia and a quite short walk from Oxford street. If you are looking for a bar to visit after the show, try the Long Bar on Berners Street.

Free admission.
Where: TJ Boulting.
Ends: Saturday, 21st April.
See the London Photography Galleries. That list compliments this London Photography Exhibitions post. We regularly update the list with information on opening times and maps as well as other useful details.
More information: TJ Boulting.
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Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography

Victorian Giants unites early photographers such as Julia Margaret Cameron and Oscar Rejlander. Also included in the list of giants are Lewis Carroll and Lady Clementina Hawarden. Rejlander was initially a painter – he turned to photographer after moving to England. The pioneer mastered the complicated wet-colloidion process for negatives after a three-and-a-half hour crash course in London. Later, he became a teacher to Cameron, Carroll and Lady Hawarden. In fact the four stayed in touch throughout their careers. In spite of this there was some rivalry; Lewis Carroll wrote that ‘he
did not admire Mrs Cameron’s large heads taken out of focus‘.

The art on show is raw, edgy and experimental. This is a ‘jewel-like show of photographs’ – The Telegraph.

The National Portrait Gallery is on St. Martin’s Place. It is near to Leicester Square tube station. Charing Cross station is also just a short walk.

Adult: £13.85 (including £2 donation and £1.85 online transaction fee).
Where: National Portrait Gallery.
Ends: Sunday, 20th May.
See the London Photography Galleries. That list compliments this London Photography Exhibitions post. We regularly update the list with information on opening times and maps as well as other useful details.
More information: National Portrait Gallery.
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Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins

Barbican Centre, London Photography Exhibitions April 2018
Another Kind of Life, in short, explores the lives of people who have rejected the mainstream. The works touch on gender and sexuality together with countercultures and subcultures. Twenty photographers are featured including Daido Moriyama, Bruce Davidson and Larry Clark. The range of genres and period covered are also broad. There is not just classic documentary photography; street photography and portraiture also feature. The images date from the 1950s up until present day. This is a blockbuster curation reflecting a more diverse view of the world.

The Barbican Centre is just a couple of minutes’ walk from Barbican tube station. Liverpool Street and Moorgate are also quite close.

Standard Ticket: £13.50 (added donation optional, no booking fee applies).
Where: Barbican Centre.
Ends: Sunday, 27th May.
See the London Photography Galleries. That list compliments this London Photography Exhibitions post. We regularly update the list with information on opening times and maps as well as other useful details.
More information: Barbican Centre.
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Under Cover: A Secret History of Cross – Dressers

Under Cover is a reflection on gender non-conformity. The Photographers’ Gallery display 200 images from Sébastien Lifshitz’s private collection. Interestingly, the images on display are from as far back as the 1880s. They show people from different classes, genders, professions and nationalities.

Many of these are very ordinary portraits… How unremarkable these pictures are, until we realise how precise they are in their studied ordinariness.The Guardian

The Photographers’ Gallery is by Liberty of London, not far from either Oxford Street or Regent Street. The gallery has a great café as well as a print shop.

Free admission before noon every day.
Where: The Photographers’ Gallery.
Ends: Sunday, 3rd June.
See the London Photography Galleries. That list compliments this London Photography Exhibitions post. We regularly update the list with information on opening times and maps as well as other useful details.
More information: The Photographers’ Gallery.
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Andreas Gursky

Andreas Gursky is a German photographer, formerly a student of influential photographers Hilla and Bernd Becher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Gursky is now a professor at the Kunstakademie. That hallowed institution was attended by a long list of notable photographers including Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth and Candida Höfer. Gursky is undoubtedly one of the most successful modern photographers with no fewer than six of his photographs featuring in the list of 20 Most Expensive Photos Sold at Auction. Of course, he also has the top spot with ‘Rhein II, 1999‘ which went for £2.7 million at auction in November, 2011.

What makes his photographs so expensive?

First of all the prints are huge; Rhein II is almost 12 feet (16 metres) wide. He uses medium format cameras to capture pictures and then manipulate them digitally, creating abstracts. The purpose of the digital manipulation is not to create fictions, instead to heighten the image of something that exists in the world. Andreas Gursky photographs and a social commentary which reveal “how do we order the world around around us“. It is not just Andreas Gursky’s artistic vision which makes his work so valuable. In addition, his works are rare; of the edition of six which made up Rhein II, four are in museums and only two are in private collections.

Andreas Gursky’s to large-scale photographs of landscapes, people and architecture, captures the modern world in seductive detail. He displays a methodical approach similar to that of Hilla and Bernd Becher who offered him critical training. Similarities can be noted in the use of repitition, the feature of textures, symmetry and pattern. He also counts landscape photographer John Davies and large-format colour photography pioneer Joel Sternfeld amongst those who influenced him. Gursky’s typically uses a high point of view. This is considered democratic in that it gives equal importance to every element in the composition. The result is “somewhere between photography and paintings

Hayward Gallery Reopens

Hayward Gallery, London Photography Exhibitions, South Bank
The Hayward Gallery, on the South Bank has re-opened after a two-year refurbishment with a treat for photography enthusiasts; the first major UK Andreas Gursky retrospective. The gallery present 60 images from the early 80s to Gursky’s latest work. The curator definitely had to include, the most famous Gursky, Rhein II, but there is more recent work. As an example, manipulated images made using high end digital large format cameras. The images are particularly digitally manipulated. As a result the output mimics the initial inspiration; a mobile phone capture from a moving train. This is another social comment on the world around us.

If you are keen to see full scale Gursky work, but find the entrance fee a little high you might consider going to the White Cube Gallery in Bermondsey.

The Brutalist Hayward Gallery is close to Waterloo Tube Station and on the South Bank. It’s a short walk from the Strand so you might consider combining the gallery visit with a Theatreland trip.

Supporter Standard Ticket: £18.50 (including transaction fee).
Where: Hayward Gallery.
Ends: Sunday, 22nd April.
See the London Photography Galleries. That list compliments this London Photography Exhibitions post. We regularly update the list with information on opening times and maps as well as other useful details.
More information: Hayward Gallery.
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London Photography Exhibitions April 2018

That’s it for this week’s London Photography Exhibitions, look out for next week’s list of London Photography Exhibitions!

We post regularly on London Photography Exhibitions and a wide range of topics from travel to healthy living, each post featuring jfFrank photos. Have a look through our galleries and other posts to find out more about us and our work. You can find other posts here. The site features photo galleries on four themes: Memories, Moments, Escapes & Places. Follow links to explore.

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London Photography Exhibitions March 2018
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