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Photography galleries in London
Get in the picture with our guide to the capital's best galleries to visit and buy photography
Top 10 art exhibitions for 2012
- Damien Hirst
- Picasso and Britain
- Yayoi Kusama
- Bauhaus: Art as Life
- Yoko Ono
- British Design 1948-2012: Innovation in the Modern Age
- Rachel Whiteread
London has produced many of the twentieth century’s greatest photojournalists and fashion photographers – Terence Donovan, David Bailey, Don McCullin and Norman Parkinson among them. And although the medium sometimes struggles to be accepted as an fine art form, the first (and so far only) photographer to win the Turner Prize, Wolfgang Tillmans in 2000, was also a Londoner, albeit an adopted one.
The capital’s thriving and ever-expanding art scene is home to galleries that show and sell photography in all its forms, from the earliest nineteenth-century daguerreotypes to limited-edition fine-art prints and documentary shots of celebrities and pop stars.
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Getty Images Gallery
46 Eastcastle St, London, W1W 8DXGetty Images hold an archive of literally millions of photographic images in the form of neagatives, prints and transparencies, dating from the 1850s to the present day. Drawing on this incredible resource they host a regular showcase of exhibitions from '100 Years of Hollywood Images' to 'A History of the Isle of Man TT Races', in addition to providing a tailored service of fine quality prints for sale, both to the public and for commercial use. If you're looking for a specific image the gallery also offers a research facility to search their collections where, chances are, you'll find it! See full venue details
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Diemar/Noble
66-67 Wells St, W1T 3PYExperimental contemporary snaps are shown alongside early classics at this smart West End gallery. Set up in 2009 by photography consultant and curator Michael Diemar and curator Laura Noble, Diemar/Noble has fast established itself as one of the capital's top spots for photography. An education programme, of talks, portfolio review sessions and courses in photography and collecting, runs alongside the main exhibitions. See full venue details
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Foto8 Gallery
1 Honduras St, London, EC1Y 0THNow bigger, thanks to a recent refurbishment, and as buzzing as ever, Foto8 (formerly known as Host) operates a busy schedule of shows, talks and photography seminars and also publishes books and a gorgeously glossy magazine. Don't miss the annual Foto8 Summershow, an eclectic mix of the best recent documentary work from across the globe. See full venue details
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James Hyman
5 Savile Row, London, W1S 3PDIf it's grit, wit and working-class life you're after, you've come to the right place. James Hyman focuses on British social photography, particularly since the 1980s. More recent work, by the likes of Anna Fox and Ken Grant, is balanced with vintage images by Atget, Brassai and others, while the Spotlight exhibition series shines light on new talent. See full venue details
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Magnum Print Room
Magnum Studios, 63 Gee St, London, EC1V 3RSWhen Magnum Photos was founded in 1947, by Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson among others, the idea of a cooperative, owned and run by photographers, was unheard of. Now Magnum counts leading photojournalists from across the globe among its members. The Print Room is an archive and exhibition space for their work – totalling one million images and growing by the day. See full venue details
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Michael Hoppen Gallery
3 Jubilee Place, London, SW3 3TDMichael Hoppen Gallery, set up in 1993, exhibits exclusively fine art photography. The second floor is dedicated to high quality contemporary work from well known photographers such as Daido Moriyama, through rising stars such as Desiree Dolron to edgier, newly discovered talents. Superbly produced artists' books, some published in house, are available to buy from the gallery. See full venue details
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Photographers' Gallery
16-18 Ramillies St, London, W1F 7LWThe Photographers' Gallery's six-storey premises on Ramillies Street is currently undergoing a full facelift. The organisation plans to unveil its shiny new space, on the same site, in 2012, but until then is running a programme of events and offsite projects. See the website for details. See full venue details
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Proud Galleries
32 John Adam St, London, WC2N 6BPPopular culture is the dish {I}du jour{/I} here. Familiar faces from music, sport and fashion feature heavily in Proud's fun and accessible exhibitions programme, run across two galleries in Chelsea and Camden. Proud Camden, a Grade-II listed former horse hospital, also serves food throughout the day and morphs into a hip live music venue after dark. See full venue details
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V&A Photographs Gallery
Cromwell Road, SW7 2RLAn early pioneer in collecting and exhibiting photography, the V&A now boasts a permanent gallery dedicated to the medium. The inaugural exhibition charts the history of the photography with a display of beautiful and remarkable images taken between 1839 and the 1960s. Two further spaces are devoted to exploring the work of key photographic figures such as Julia Margaret Cameron and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Temporary displays, primarily showcasing contemporary photography, will be shown in the V&A's existing photographs gallery. See full venue details
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Atlas Gallery
49 Dorset St, W1U 7NFThis gallery, which hosts a regular progamme of exhibitions specialises in classic and modern twentieth-century vintage photography, photojournalism, fashion and contemporary photography. Originally based in Hoxton, Atlas has been in its current venue, in the swankier environs of Marylebone, since 2001. See full venue details
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Hamiltons
13 Carlos Place, London, W1K 2EUHamilton's has been showing and selling work by some of the giants of twentieth-century photography since 1977. Super-sleek, black-and-white portraiture by Irving Penn, Helmut Newton and Herb Ritts sets the tone. But, thanks to forays into architectural photography by Tadao Ando and a show of Tomio Seike's pared-down, almost painterly images of Brighton beaches, Hamilton's resists easy categorisation. See full venue details
Comments
Please add me to your e'mail listings for info on art / photography exhibitions and events
Please put me on your email list for updating art events and exhibs and also particularly photography thanks
At the risk of my being thought of as 'not cool', I'll add: Idea Generation Gallery, Chris Beetles Fine Photographs, and the National Portrait Gallery.
Rob Boler
RobBolerShootsPeople.com
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