London is never short of creative goings-on, but the city's photography scene is a burgeoning source of 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
‘Flowers / Together pt 2’
Have a Butchers Gallery
Until 17 November
'Flowers / Together pt 2'
A subject of constant inspiration, flowers are returned to by the photographic duo Metz and Racine for an exhibition and book, ‘Flowers / Together pt 2’. Open briefs were given to a cohort of London’s creatives (including Wallpaper*’s own photography director Holly Hay) to see flowers as an anchor point for the most dynamic inventions. Altogether the show and accompanying publication are a testament to the importance of being able to shrug off the constraints of commercial expectations in the creative process. Instead, Metz and Racine celebrate the invigorating chaos that comes from collaboration.
‘Human Stories: The Satirists’
NOW Gallery
Until13 November 2022
Bringing together six rising talents across photography and film, ‘Human Stories: The Satirists’ explores the intersection of visual humour, and interconnected and diverse identities across gender, race and class. Presented by NOW Gallery, alternative worldviews are played with through flair and wit, discarding outdated dialogues. This evocative creativity is a way to ‘traverse cultural modalities of a post-pandemic world,’ curator Kaia Charles explains. The emerging artists include Bubi Canal, Leonard Suryajaya, Nyugen Smith, Thandiwe Muriu, Thy Tran and Stephen Tayo.
Jack Davison - Photographic Etchings
Cob Gallery
Until 12 November 2022
Jack Davison, Untitled (JD), 2022, Photopolymer intaglio, Image size 35x29.5cm Paper Size 76x57cm
Now on show at Cob Gallery, Jack Davison’s ‘Photographic Etchings’ achieves a complex feat. Surreal and sensual compositions are clear and crisp at first look with their dramatic contrast, but as the etchings continue to hold the viewer's gaze they dissolve into a melted chiaroscuro, enveloping us into the second wave of surreality. Tumblr and Flickr’s formative photographic influence is present too, as the platforms on which Davison first explored the medium while photographing the Essex countryside. Combining his interest in the works of Saul Leiter, Shoji Udea, August Sander, and Man Ray, Davison Davison creates his own original strange world that blurs seeing and feeling.
Tyler Mitchell: ‘Chrysalis’
Gagosian, Davies Street
Until 12 November
Tyler Mitchell, Cage, 2022
Idyllic visions of Black beauty, desire, and belonging are lensed by Tyler Mitchell in ‘Chrysalis’, his first London solo show at Gagosian, ahead of the much anticipated ‘The New Black Vanguard’ (to open at the Saatchi Gallery on October 28). Land, water and the sky are woven throughout Mitchell’s utopian visions, as he creates a universe in which the spiritual and the transformative come to the fore. Mitchell explains, ‘Collectively, these moments become figments of an imaginative psychic state of being, one in which radiance, resistance, restraint, comfort, and full human agency exist.’
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Christmas gift ideas for design loversWallpaper* global design director Hugo Macdonald compiles his festive wish list – from Poltrona Frau's luxurious dog leads to Carl Aubock's wicker magazine wall rack
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‘I want to push it forward’: Dries Van Noten’s new creative director is Julian KlausnerA member of the Dries Van Noten design team since 2018, Belgian designer Julian Klausner has been promoted to creative director after the namesake founder’s exit from his eponymous label earlier this year
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Inside Dior’s ‘Gold House’ in Bangkok, a spectacular celebration of Thai art and craftDaven Wu takes a trip to Bangkok to discover ‘Gold House’, a gilded new concept store from Dior which is rooted in both Parisian savoir-faire and artisanal Thai craft, featuring a café, gardens and showstopping gilded facade
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Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA week in the world of Wallpaper*. Here's how our editors have been entertaining themselves in the run up to Christmas
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Love, melancholy and domesticity: Anna Calleja is a painter to watchAnna Calleja explores everyday themes in her exhibition, ‘One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night’, at Sim Smith, London
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Ndayé Kouagou speaks the language of the chaotic social media influencer in LondonNdayé Kouagou celebrates meandering incoherence with an exhibition, ‘A Message for Everybody’, at Gathering in London
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Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA snowy Swiss Alpine sleepover, a design book fest in Milan, and a night with Steve Coogan in London – our editors' out-of-hours adventures this week
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Discover psychedelic landscapes and mind-bending art at London’s Tate Modern'Electric Dreams' at the Tate encompasses the period from the 1950s to the beginning of the internet era
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From activism and capitalism to club culture and subculture, a new exhibition offers a snapshot of 1980s BritainThe turbulence of a colourful decade, as seen through the lens of a diverse community of photographers, collectives and publications, is on show at Tate Britain until May 2025
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Meet Kenia Almaraz Murillo, the artist rethinking weavingKenia Almaraz Murillo draws on the new and the traditional in her exhibition 'Andean Cosmovision' at London's Waddington Custot
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Inside Jack Whitten’s contribution to American contemporary artAs Jack Whitten exhibition ‘Speedchaser’ opens at Hauser & Wirth, London, and before a major retrospective at MoMA opens next year, we explore the American artist's impact
