London is never short of creative goings-on, but the city’s photography scene is increasingly a source of burgeoning excitement, with dedicated photography festivals, galleries and even a new photography quarter at the heart of London’s Soho. Stay up-to-date with our ongoing guide to the best London photography exhibitions.
London photography exhibitions
David Brandon Geeting: ‘The Marble’
1014 Gallery
Until 9 September
Now on show at 1014 Gallery, founded by agency East Photographic, is ‘The Marble’, a ‘tumbling down a spiritual rabbit hole’ that explores ‘the alchemy between the tactile and transcendent constructs of this world.’ In New York-based artist David Brandon Geeting’s signature eclectic and surprising style, strange still lifes of peppers convulse against yellow clouds, shells evoke cartoon animals, while a butterfly takes to its doll-like bed. Altogether these curiosities convey a psychedelic insight into Brandon Geeting’s mind.
‘How to Win at Photography: Image-Making as Play’
The Photographers’ Gallery
Until 25 September
‘How to Win at Photography: Image-Making as Play’ is a multimedia exploration of the links between photography, digital media and play. Play, here, is multi-pronged. There are elements of joyous experimentation, whether it’s tampering with analogue photographic devices or the format of iconic console games, or making unexpected connections with the history of visual culture. But this is also play as political and cultural subversion, where the sinister underbelly of the Internet is excavated and viewers’ preconceptions are toyed with. Through a wide range of international voices, including Ai Weiwei, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Cindy Sherman, Harun Farocki, Ed Ruscha, and Sherrie Levine, the show questions the very function of photography in digital culture. Who’s in charge? Who’s making the rules, and how can they be broken?
‘Known and Strange: Photographs from the Collection’
V&A
Until 6 November
Featuring works from the V&A’s collection, ‘Known and Strange’ explores photography’s ability to transition from the familiar into the abstract, the ordinary into the otherworldly. The display includes impressive acquisitions from artists such as Paul Graham, Susan Meiselas, Dafna Talmor, Zanele Muholi and Tom Lovelace. Viewers are invited to challenge everyday assumptions and experience broader perspectives through both time and space.
Photography exhibitions around the UK
Ishiuchi Miyako
Stills Centre for Photography, Edinburgh
8 October 2022
In the most extensive UK exhibition of Ishiuchi Miyako’s work to date, and coinciding with the Edinburgh Art Festival, Stills presents the post-war Japanese photographer’s most renowned series. Mother’s is an emotive documentation of the belongings of victims of Hiroshima’s atomic bomb. Methodically placed with great care, the stained and torn clothing conveys a personal side to the collective trauma caused by the act of war. Elsewhere in the show, Frida catalogues Frida Kahlo’s corsets, cosmetics, shoes and more as relics of an incredibly complex creative life. Through Miyako’s eye, these images are heavy-laden with histories. §