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On 30 October the British Library will open a major exhibition exploring the life and work of the bestselling novelist of all time, Agatha Christie. Marking fifty years since her death, the exhibition will examine not only the origins of iconic fictional creations like Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple but will also go behind the characters and stories to explore Christie's world and legacy.

The exhibition will take visitors on a journey through Christie’s upbringing, her interests and travels and how she adapted her novels for the stage, through five immersive sections filled with items from her personal life, including her typewriter, professional and personal correspondence with other writers, family photographs and notebooks and typescripts for novels. There will also be clues and ‘Easter eggs’ dotted throughout the exhibition for Christie fans to sleuth out. Christie’s impact on the wider crime fiction genre will be explored through interviews within the exhibition with leading writers, broadcasters and notable fans.

Of particular interest the exhibition reveals Christie's active interest in photography through her own albums with photographs taken when she was accompanying her second husband MAx Mallowan on archaelogical digs in Mesopotamia. Christie took pictures throughout her life from her teenage years in to 70s.

As Dr Pippa Oldfield, the curator who uncovered Christie's photographic interest, notes photography is used in the plots of several of her novels.  In an intervciew with Oldfield the Financial Times reports “The extent to which Agatha entered into the endeavour really surprised me,” says Dr Pippa Oldfield.  Thee British Library will show Christie’s notebooks and typescripts, her 1937 Remington typewriter and a full-size replica of a 1920s Orient Express train carriage as well as her Leica camera and several photo albums, bringing the woman behind the modern murder mystery into focus.

Only a fraction of the photographic material held by the Christie Archive Trust in Devon will be exhibited at the British Library, but Oldfield and design historian Yasuko Suga are also co-curating a show dedicated exclusively to Christie’s photography, which will be shown in the British Library Entrance Hall next year. There are, 'many thousands' of images to wade through. 

Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery
30 October 2026 – 20 June 2027
London, British Library, Euston Road
See: https://events.bl.uk/exhibitions/agathachristie

Read the FT article which goes into much greater depth about Christie's photography here.

A selection of Christie images weer shown in 2015 see Amateur Photographer report here

Image: Agatha Christie boarding the EET Salon at lunchtime on the train from Bulawayo to the Cape. In 1922 Agatha Christie set sail on a 10-month voyage around the world. Her husband Archie had been invited to join a trade mission to promote the British Empire Exhibition and Agatha was determined to go with him.© The Christie Archive Trust

In late 2025, a discovery was made at the Alpine Club, London. Hidden away in the basement archive at 55 Charlotte Road, amidst ice axes, tents and geological samples, was a huge collection of glass negatives from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Taken by some of the most famous names in British mountaineering, these photographs offered a tantalising glimpse into the early days of climbing in the Alps and put flesh on the bones of the men who made it possible.

Working with photographic printing and publishing experts Salto Ulbeek, the Alpine Club has chosen some of the best of these images to be reproduced as large-scale platinum-palladium prints. This printing process has transformed that tantalising glimpse into a true window onto the past. One through which you can almost hear the wind whipping at tweed jackets and feel the freshness of the Alpine air.

The exhibited photographs are by William Abney, Frank Smythe, Sydney Spencer and George Finch, and include depictions of some of the first guides ever to work in the Alps, as well as spectacular views of iconic peaks such as the Dent du Géant and the Matterhorn.

Commenting on the discovery of the prints, Alpine Club President Duncan Sperry said: “It is astonishing to see scenes of Alpine mountaineering from the 19th century brought to life in this way. The public are inclined to think of that period as one of conformist Victorian gentlemen, but these photographs reveal how similar they were to the adventurous climbers of today; leaping crevasses, posing on rock spikes and navigating the tangled masses of imposing glaciers.”

Georges Charlier of Salto Ulbeek said: “Discovering these negatives in the basement archive of 55 Charlotte Road was a truly exciting moment for us all. It is a privilege for us to work with this archival material and to be entrusted with printing these images using the platinum-palladium process.”

The project forms part of the Alpine Club's continuing work to preserve and make accessible Britain's mountaineering heritage. Over time, glass and celluloid negatives deteriorate and the process of scanning, cataloguing and printing ensures that these images are preserved for future generations. Platinum-palladium printing is particularly suited to historic photographic material. The process produces prints with an exceptionally broad tonal range and distinctive depth, while platinum and palladium are among the most stable photographic image-forming materials, giving properly preserved prints an extraordinary potential longevity

For interested parties, details of how to purchase limited edition platinum-palladium prints of the exhibited photographs will be available at the exhibition. From 1 October, the exhibition will also include folios for each of the featured photographers containing a selection of prints and an accompanying essay.

Historic Tudor house, Coughton Court in Warwickshire, has launched a brand new exhibition  exploring the Throckmorton family’s story through photography over the last three centuries. The Throckmorton Family: Through the Lens brings together a fascinating collection of photographs charting the lives of the family through the generations, from Sir William Throckmorton (1838-1919) and Henry Langford-Brooke (1843-1907) through to the present day. 

The exhibition offers a rare and personal glimpse into the family behind Coughton Court, capturing early formal portraits to more candid images of later generations. The photographs trace the family’s story through the lens providing an intimate record of the many generations who have called the historic estate home.

Magnus Birch Throckmorton, who manages Coughton Court alongside his wife Imogen, said: “Photography gives us a wonderfully personal way of looking back through the generations and it’s fascinating to see how much has changed over the years. We hope visitors enjoy discovering a little more about the people behind Coughton Court and seeing how our family’s story has unfolded through the lens over the years.”

Entry to the exhibition is included with all house and garden tickets.  Coughton Court is open all year round from Wednesday to Sunday, 9am-4.30pm. Tickets are £15.50 for adults (16+), £6.50 for children (under 5s are free), and £14 for concessions (60+) and students. Parking and entry to the Stableyard cafe, shop and play area is free of charge.

For more information about Coughton Court, visit www.coughtoncourt.co.uk.  

This summer, the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA) will shine a light on the power of landscape photography by exploring the ways in which the camera has shaped how the natural world is seen and understood. On view until 24 January 2027, Sightlines: British Landscape Photography, 1840 to Now spans nearly two centuries and presents more than one hundred photographic works, ranging from the pioneering botanical studies of early innovators William Henry Fox Talbot and Bessie Rayner Parkes to the charged images of industrial landscapes by Bruce Davidson and Rachel Whiteread.

Sightlines will run alongside John Constable: The Landscape Reimagined, which opens on 3 September expanding the exploration of the British landscape to two of the YCBA’s four floors.

“Britain has one of the great traditions of landscape art, and photography both inherited and transformed the ways the land was seen and understood,” said Martina Droth, Paul Mellon Director, YCBA. “When we look at landscape photographs across time, from the early studies made directly from nature to later works that confront industrialization and its social consequences, we see the land continually remade. With the YCBA’s deep holdings in British landscape—and with our forthcoming John Constable exhibition—Sightlines offers a distinctive vantage point on this history, showing how photographs capture and reveal the ways the land is experienced and inhabited, and how profoundly it has been shaped by human action.”

Since the earliest days of photography in the mid-nineteenth century, the camera has been an essential tool for observing and depicting the environment. Landscape photography, in particular, embodies ideas about beauty, nature, history, science, and society. Some images romanticize the land. Others expose the social and environmental impacts of modern life. In every case, landscape photography does more than document the world around us. It actively constructs it and shapes how we understand it, reinforcing or challenging dominant ways of thinking, knowing, and feeling.

Taken together, the works in Sightlines invite visitors to consider photography’s complex cultural role: as a tool to build knowledge about the landscape; as an artistic medium to inspire, awe, and communicate; and, increasingly, as a vehicle to critically examine social and environmental conditions. “Landscape photography influences how we see, value, and inhabit our environments,” said Sightlines curator Jackson Davidow, Project Manager, YCBA. “It opens the door to an ongoing conversation between the artist, the viewer, and the natural world. In that way, this is a truly special exhibition, and we’re thrilled to show so many remarkable and important works in our space.”

Among its abundance of stunning images, the exhibition features majestic views of natural beauty, scenes of social life and industrial transformation, and surreal digital photomontages. It encompasses not only photographs but also works in other media related to the photographic image, including prints, drawings, and books, capturing the evolving nature of photography itself. A true testament to the pictures and the artists who captured them, Sightlines reveals British landscape photography as a dynamic and continually evolving field of inquiry that invites us to contemplate anew what a landscape is and can be.

Sightlines: British Landscape Photography, 1840 to Now
until 24 January 2027
Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT
See: https://britishart.yale.edu/exhibitions-programs/sightlines-british-landscape-photography-1840-now

Images: (Top): Henry Stuart Wortley, Clouds, 1863, albumen print from a wet collodion negative, 6 7/8 × 9 inches (17.5 × 22.9 cm). Yale Center for British Art, gift of Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro in honor of Scott Wilcox; (Below, left): Bessie Rayner Parkes, photogenic drawing negatives, 1859, from an album of photogenic drawing negatives and prints, album 7 7/8 x 6 3/4 inches (20 x 17 cm). Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund; (Below, right): Hugh Owen, Harvest Scene with Stooks, before 1855, albumen print, 6 3/4 × 8 3/4 inches (17.2 × 22.3 cm). Yale Center for British Art, gift of Hans P. Kraus.

Made Together explores Amber Films’ place within the 1980s Workshop Movement, a short but important period in British film culture when collective, non-commercial and regionally rooted filmmaking was given national support.

Presented at Tyneside Cinema, the display looks at how Amber developed films through long-term relationships with communities, combining research, documentary observation, drama, local knowledge and trust. It focuses on four key works from the period: Keeping Time (1983), Seacoal (1985), Double Vision (1986) and In Fading Light (1989). Together, these films show Amber’s commitment to working with people and places over time, rather than arriving with a fixed story.

Through production stills, scripts, notes, flyers and archival material, the display traces a filmmaking practice shaped by class, labour, gender, regional identity and everyday life. It also reflects on the wider legacy of the Workshop Movement, which argued that film could be made differently: collaboratively, accountably, and from outside the usual centres of power.

Kettle’s Yard is delighted to present Sunil Gupta: Life with a Camera, 1970 – Now, a new exhibition chronicling five decades of Sunil Gupta’s (b. 1953, India) pioneering contribution to photography and activism. Intimate and subversive, Gupta’s photography has been instrumental in raising awareness around the fight for queer rights internationally, particularly in India and the UK, laying bare the tensions between tradition and modernity, and public and private spheres. Featuring more than 140 works, this exhibition will reflect Gupta’s migrations between Delhi, New York, Montreal and his longstanding home in London, celebrating his love for his family, friends and partners, and his belief that everyone has the right to lead full and joyful lives, in which identity and sexuality can be celebrated.

Arranged chronologically and grouped in series bound by theme, time and location, ‘Life with a Camera’ will span street photography, portraits and both commissioned and personal projects. The exhibition will open with highlights from Gupta’s early career, including Friends and Lovers (early 1970s), Christopher Street (1976) – created while the artist was studying at the New School, New York, in the period after the Stonewall uprising – and Exiles (1986-1987), a series of constructed images of anonymous men in iconic gay cruising locations across Delhi. Created in response to the criminalisation of gay sex in India and, effectively, the public expression of gay identity, the series represents an act of defiance against the suppression of queer love.

The power of photography to make visible and confront discrimination continues in the series ‘Pretended’ Family Relationships (1985-1988), which expresses the principle underlying much of Gupta’s work – that his activism is fundamental to the creation of compelling and unique images. The series is titled after Section 28, a controversial amendment to the UK’s Local Government Act, passed in 1988 by Margaret Thatcher, which prohibited councils and schools from teaching about homosexuality as a ‘pretended family relationship’. At this time, the mere act of depicting queer love became a defiant act of protest. Here, by juxtaposing portraits of couples with photographs of demonstrations against the legislation, Gupta gestures both to the power of representation and the problematic nature of representation without equivalent political action. This idea is further explored in From Here to Eternity (1999), where Gupta pairs images of his body following his HIV diagnosis with photographs of gay nightclubs that have been shut down across south London. The series acts as an urgent call to action to protect spaces for the gay community in the fallout from the HIV pandemic.

As much as Gupta’s work is intrinsically related to his activism, it is equally concerned with experiments in digital image making. In his series Homelands (2001-2003), Gupta draws connections between photographs of life in Delhi, London and the US through a series of diptychs created with meticulously constructed compositions and shifting perspectives. Sun City (2010), meanwhile, draws on Chris Marker’s 1962 film La Jetée to create a series of stills from a fictionalised missing film, forming a cyclical storyline of romantic love.

Life with a Camera will conclude with Gupta’s more recent works, including Mr Malhotra’s Party (2007-2012), which covers a period of intense lobbying to change anti-gay laws in India. These works depart from the furtive cruising pictured in Exiles, with the artist’s subjects looking straight into the camera as they are photographed across the city. Dissent and Desire (2015), a collaboration between Gupta and Charan Singh, will also be on view, capturing the interior lives of queer people in Delhi. In charting Gupta’s own experiences, the exhibition will more broadly track shifts across queer rights and activism from the 1970s, culminating in images from the Trans+ Pride marches in 2025.

Sunil Gupta: Life with a Camera, 1970 – Now is curated by Andrew Nairne and Guy Haywood with Susie Biller. It will be accompanied by a new publication chronicling Gupta’s journey as both an artist and an activist, with new essays by Tausif Noor, Gregory Salter, Theo Gordon, Natasha Bissonauth, Gayatri Sinha and texts by Sunil Gupta.

Sunil Gupta: Life with a Camera, 1970 – Now
19 September 2026 – 31 January 2027
Kettle's Yard
See: https://www.kettlesyard.cam.ac.uk/

Image: Sunil Gupta, Untitled #22 from Christopher Street (1976). Images courtesy the artist and Hales Gallery, Materià Gallery, SepiaEye, Stephen Bulger Gallery and Vadehra Art Gallery. © Sunil Gupta. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2025.

The Hardmans’ Liverpool - A Legacy in Light: from Street to Studio invites audiences to experience Liverpool in the early to mid‑twentieth century through the photographic eyes of Edward Chambré and Margaret Hardman. See the city represented via evocative scenes before and after the Second World War. Everyday moments and familiar locations are elevated through an artistic play of composition, angle, light and shadow. As Margaret herself poetically wrote of one major Liverpool landmark ‘I know and love you in a thousand lights’.

From busy streets to serene studio sittings – this same creativity was applied to the Hardmans’ commercial portraiture, produced in their studios on Bold Street and later at 59 Rodney Street. Here they welcomed thousands of Liverpudlians and visitors to the city, photographing young children, newly-weds, artists, actors, soldiers, families and even pets to name a few. The studio took on particular significance during the Second World War, when portraiture of men and women in service – and the loved ones they left behind – played an important role in sustaining morale and supporting the war effort. Together with their photography documenting life beyond the studio, these works reflect the Hardmans’ exceptional vision of – and deep connection to – Liverpool.

The selected content on display, ranging from original photographic prints to letters and medals, is drawn from the National Trust’s vast Hardmans’ archive on deposit at Liverpool Central Library. The contribution of volunteers is reflected in the presentation of works recently conserved by them and staff over the course of several conservation projects – all supporting increased access and ongoing research into the Hardmans’ legacy. Additional material from the Hardmans’ House, including two of the photographers’ personal cameras, further enriches the exhibition.

Cultural Heritage Curator Amy Carney states “The Hardmans’ photographs have helped to shape how Liverpool is seen, remembered and understood today. Visitors are invited to consider their own relationship with the city, as well as with photography and memory itself.”

Enhancing this contemplation is the inclusion of images by Liverpool-based photographer and darkroom educator Rachel Brewster-Wright, founder of Little Vintage Photography. Commissioned to document The Hardmans House at 59 Rodney Street and to create new mini portraits of people posing in the historic Hardmans’ studio setting today, these prints instantly blend nostalgia with the present-day. National Curator of Photography, Anna Sparham, reflects how “They echo a shared desire to preserve meaningful moments – something that Chambré and Margaret’s customers sought, and successfully found, in their enduring and deeply relatable photographs of people and place”.

A further opportunity to experience being photographed in the original studio of The Hardmans’ House is available to book online, with sessions taking place on 26 August in collaboration with Little Vintage Photography. Free, limited sessions available. A guided Photo Walk between The Hardmans’ House and Liverpool Central Library is also programmed for 10 September.

In generous collaboration with Liverpool Central Library and supported by photo printing expert CEWE and Little Vintage Photography

The Hardmans’ Liverpool.  A Legacy in Light: from Street to Studio
5 June-28 September 2026
Hornby Library, Liverpool Central Library

Images: (Top): National Trust/capture Robert Thrift; (Below): © National Trust/Jayne Knight

From 12 July to 27 September, Blenheim Palace will be showcasing a major photography exhibition, Life Through a Royal Lens, which explores the British Royal Family’s enduring relationship with the camera; from the reign of Queen Victoria right through to the present day. The display of over 100 of the most iconic royal photographs can be enjoyed in the Long Library, the largest room in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, which will be transformed into a gallery. Alongside iconic photographs will be intimate images which share a glimpse of the Royal Family off duty.

The exhibition features images by pioneering Victorian photographers, modern royal portraitists like Cecil Beaton, Marcus Adams, Annie Leibovitz, and Rankin, as well as photos taken by Royal Family members themselves. Highlights include the last public photograph of Queen Elizabeth II and portraits from the first three years of King Charles III and Queen Camilla’s reign, including Josh Shinner’s recent image of the Prince and Princess of Wales, and their children.

Life Through a Royal Lens has been curated by Historic Royal Palaces – the independent charity that cares for Hampton Court Palace, the Tower of London, Kensington Palace and Hillsborough Castle and Gardens – and is toured by Nomad Exhibitions.

To coincide with Life Through a Royal Lens, visitors are invited to step into the opulent State Rooms for daily tours at 12pm (12 July-27 September) led by a costumed guide, to give insight into the 300 year history of Blenheim Palace. Here, guests will also have the opportunity to see the Green Drawing Room dressed with a regal dining table, set up in preparation for a visit from the monarchy. The dining table setting design is to mark 130 years since the Prince & Princess of Wales visited Blenheim Palace.

The royal theme will continue to the Life Below Stairs, an immersive experience which offers a unique glimpse into the 1890s, showcasing the hard work and camaraderie of the Blenheim Palace team as they prepared for a royal visit, taking inspiration from the real-life event.

Life through a Royal Lens
12 July-27 Septemvber 2026
Blenheim Palace, Woodstock OX20 1PS
See more and purchase tickets visit www.blenheimpalace.com/whats-on/events/life-through-a-royal-lens/

Image: The Duke and Duchess of Windsor late in their marriage portraying a happy life with a jovial pug. © Royal Collection Enterprises Ltd 2025 / Royal Collection Trust

In 1969, the Architectural Review magazine launched Manplan, a ground-breaking and often uncompromising assessment of Britain’s built environment at the end of the sixties. Photography lay at the heart of the series- through striking black and white reportage, Manplan revealed how architecture and urban planning shaped people’s daily lives, highlighting social issues that continue to be relevant today, such as inadequate housing, community, and loneliness.

Our touring exhibition Wide-Angle View brings this influential series to Liverpool, displaying over 80 original photographs capturing unique insights into society in the late 1960s. The exhibition features original work by renowned street photographers such as Ian Berry, Patrick Ward, and Tony Ray-Jones whose focus shifted to people and how they experience architecture rather than the buildings.  

Bold in tone and innovative in style, Manplan reframed conversations on urban development and brought attention to socially conscious design within the built environment. Combining pioneering graphic and print techniques with powerful photojournalism, the attention grabbing magazine sought to question and critique architectural ideas at the time.  

The Wide-Angle View exhibition reflects on its legacy and highlights the powerful role photography and design can still play in communicating and challenging over half a century on. 

Wide-Angle View: Architecture as social space in the Manplan series 1969 to 1970
Friday 10 July to Sunday 4 October 2026
Gallery 1, RIBA North, 21 Mann Island, Liverpool
Monday to Sunday, including bank holidays: 10am to 5.50pm
See RIBA North page and the Tate Liverpool website to plan your visit.

Image: Workers' housing in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with Dunston Power Station behind | Image: Tim Street-Porter | Credit: Architectural Press Archive / RIBA Collections

This new exhibition focuses on photographs and negatives in the Ashmolean, and as such features previously unseen photographs of India by Colonel Eugene Clutterbuck Impey (1830–1904). A member of the East India Company, Impey arrived in India in 1851 and took part in military actions during the Indian Uprising of 1857. After the British Crown took control in 1858 following the Uprising, he worked as a political agent until returning to Britain in 1878.  He was a member of the Amateur Photographic Association and exhibited his photography at the time. 

Impey’s photographs reflect British imperial interests, showcasing portraits of colonial officers and Indians, as well as staged scenes of daily life, clothing, religious sites, animals, and landscapes. These images often reinforced stereotypes with the aim to justify colonial efforts. Photography, which gained popularity after its debut in 1839, was used to highlight cultural differences. From the mid-1800s British officials documented various social groups in India, often categorising people by ethnicity.

The Impey collection includes 247 glass negatives preserved at the Ashmolean. New albumen prints for display have been made by Tim Pearse of Bristol's Negative Thinking darkroom. 

A book of the exhibition by Mallica Kumbera Landrus, Keeper of the Eastern Art Department in the Ashmolean Museum, and priced at £25 is also available. The publication presents a discussion of colonial India, as seen in the 19th century photographs of Colonel Eugene Clutterbuck Impey, a British soldier and administrator who was a member of the East India Company. Offering sight into the past and highlighting the political purposes of ethnographic photography in the context of the British Empire. 

Except for three brief articles, published between the 1980s and 1990s, this will be the first book length publication to consider Impey’s images of 19th century India. In the 19th century, photography and colonial ethnography were tools of British governance on the subcontinent. Colonial officers were asked to submit photographs on various subjects across India. Images of people, place and space was seen as useful surveillance documentation to observe, understand and control native communities. Eugene Clutterbuck Impey (1830-1904) arrived in India in 1851 and lived there until his retirement in 1878. He served as political agent at different posts across the country. The Eastern Art archives include over 250 negatives and photographs of Impey’s images of people, architectural sites, and landscapes.

Contributors to this publication are Marwa Ahmed, Geoffrey Batchen, Radhica Ganapathy, Julia A. B. Hegewald, Aparna Kumar, Dane Kennedy, Nayanika Mathur, Tim Pearse, Chaitanya Sambrani, Giles Tillotson.

Colonial views of India. Photographs by Eugene Clutterbuck Impey
Until 13 December 2026
Free, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/colonial-views-of-india-impey-photographs

Image: Seated girl, 1858-1865.

A talented amateur photographer, William Jackson (1893-1966), was captivated by the dramatic compositions and subjects he found along the rivers Hull and Humber. Taken in the years 1933-1949 these striking images are a snapshot of a maritime landscape in transition.

Also on display will be a collection of original material relating to the photographer and his life.

Industrial River: The photographs of William Jackson
2 June-21 November, during History Centre opening hours
Hull History Centre, Worship St., Hull, HU2 8BG
Free, all welcome
See: https://www.hullhistorycentre.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/current-events.aspx

This exhibition restages ‘art – photography – therapy’, an exhibition of Jo Spence’s photography curated by Terry Dennett in 2008, for an international photo therapy conference in Turku, Finland. Discovered in a battered portfolio in the Jo Spence Memorial Library Archive, the original exhibition’s 41 panels include some of Spence’s best known and impactful work, from the series Remodelling Photo History (1981-1982) and The Picture of Health? (1982-1986) to various photo therapy collaborations with Rosy Martin and others, ending with the Final Project she made while coming to terms with a terminal diagnosis. 

The Project Remains Incomplete considers the role of Dennett in nurturing the educational and artistic legacy of Spence, after her death from leukaemia. Dennett, a lifelong collaborator of Spence’s, dedicated his life to stewarding her archive and making it available to students and the public. The title of the exhibition comes from Dennett’s own reflections about Spence’s unfinished Final Project.

This restaging also brings together archival material and voices that were not present in Dennett’s original curation in Finland. In so doing, The Project Remains Incomplete invites reflections on the role of curators and archivists in activating the past for use in the present, and in shaping artistic afterlives and reputations. Spence’s work continues to speak to current concerns with women’s self-representation, agency and the female gaze, as well as the therapeutic and political uses of photography. 

Led by Patrizia Di Bello, Professor of History and Theory of Photography at Birkbeck, the curatorial team includes Talia Ulrich, Olga Murphy, Kerry Hart, Julian Ehsan, Farzad Fazilat, and Chloe Griffiths. 

‘The Project Remains Incomplete’: Jo Spence, Curated by Terry Dennett
22 May – 10 July 2026
Peltz Gallery, 43 Gordon Square London WC1H 0PD
Free admission, Monday to Friday, 10AM to 8PM. Closed on weekends

Image credit: Jo Spence with Terry Dennett and David Robert, ‘Return to Nature’, from Final Project, 1991-92. Laminated plastic panel made by Terry Dennett circa 2008, 405 by 500 mm. All Jo Spence’s work © Image Centre, Toronto

Widely considered one of the doyennes of late twentieth-century British photography, Dorothy Bohm was born Dorothea Israelit in Germany in 1924. Sent to the safety of England in 1939, she attended school in Sussex and studied photography in Manchester before setting up her own portrait studio there. In the late 1940s, inspired by a visit to the artists’ colony of Ascona in the Ticino, Switzerland, she started working outside the studio, capturing moments in ordinary lives with profound humanity and an instinctive eye for composition. Her first exhibition was held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London, in 1969, where she met Roland Penrose, who memorably commented that ‘her camera does not only see, it also feels.’ In the early 1970s Dorothy was involved with the founding of The Photographers’ Gallery in London, where alongside founder Sue Davies, she helped introduce a British public to the great names of contemporary photography, as well as to nurture the careers of younger photographers.

In the mid-1980s Dorothy abandoned black and white photography for colour, infusing her images with texture and spatial ambiguity to convey humanity in increasingly abstract and allusive forms. Dorothy Bohm died in March 2023 at the age of nearly 99. She had continued to take photographs until her early nineties.

Farley House and Gallery commented: 'We are delighted to exhibit About Women at the Lee Miller Gallery, a show that features a significant number of delightful images taken in Sussex in the 1960s and 1970s. This important exhibition includes both black and white, and colour photographs. Taken across the world over many decades with women as their subject, they capture moments in ordinary lives with profound humanity and an instinctive eye for composition. When asked, Dorothy stated: “I think of women as the most natural subjects for me.” The exhibition title is taken from her book About Women, which was first published 2015 and is still in print. Dorothy’s images of women are always intensely empathetic and, at times, reveal an astute, implicitly critical, awareness of the male gaze.'

Dorothy Bohm - About Women
Farleys House & Gallery, Chiddingly, East Sussex, BN8 6HW.
Open: Thursday, Friday, Sunday & selected Saturdays, April-October 1000- 1630
See: https://www.farleyshouseandgallery.co.uk/

Image: Dorothy Bohm, Goodwood. © Estate of Dorothy Bohm. 

In celebration of Marilyn Monroe’s 100th birthday and in association with the Marilyn Monroe estate, the National Portrait Gallery will present Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait (4 June – 6 September 2026). This major exhibition will celebrate the life and work of one of the most famous women of the 20^th century through portraits. It will explore the role she played in her own image making, and her inspiration on photographers and artists in her lifetime and long after.

Born on 1 June 1926, Monroe remains a defining presence in popular culture. From the earliest pin-up photographs made when she was a young model named Norma Jeane, to her last interview for Life Magazine and the poignant final images taken on Santa Monica beach in 1962, she was one of the most photographed people in the world, and fascinated and inspired some of its greatest artists. The exhibition will bring together works by Andy Warhol, Pauline Boty, James Gill, Rosalyn Drexler and Audrey Flack, alongside photographs by over 20 era-defining photographers including Cecil Beaton, Philippe Halsman, Bernard of Hollywood, André de Dienes, Eve Arnold, Inge Morath, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Milton Greene, Sam Shaw, Richard Avedon and George Barris.

The exhibition will also feature previously unseen photographs from Life magazine; intimate portraits taken by Allan Grant at Monroe's Brentwood residence just one day before her death in August 1962. Grant's exclusive session, which accompanied her final interview with Life associate editor Richard Meryman, captured 432 images of which only eight were originally published. These dynamic photographs show Monroe reading the transcript of her interview, performing a range of emotions from joy and contentment to quiet reflection.

Photographers who worked with Monroe described her as the best subject they had ever had. The exhibition will foreground Monroe's collaborative approach to image making and her creative agency; she not only performed, but also directed sessions and claimed the right to veto any images she did not like.

The shock of Monroe's death in 1962 was a catalyst for the production of numerous portraits by artists on both sides of the Atlantic. British Pop artist Pauline Boty, a devoted fan, worked through her grief in paintings including The Only Blonde in the World (1963) and Colour Her Gone (1962). In New York, Andy Warhol created his iconic screen prints. Based on a publicity still taken to promote the film Niagara (1953), Warhol isolated Monroe's face against a field of gold, enshrining her like a Byzantine saint. In Warhol's work, Monroe was no longer just a movie star, but the great American icon. James Francis Gill made his triptych Marilyn (1962), while Joseph Cornell assembled delicate memorial boxes dedicated to Monroe. Monroe continues to fascinate artists, drawn to her iconic presence and fascinating life.

The exhibition is curated by Rosie Broadley, Joint Head of Curatorial and Senior Curator of 20th Century Collections, and Georgia Atienza, Assistant Curator of Photography. 

Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait
4 June-6 September 2026
London, National Portrait Gallery
See: www.npg.org.uk 

Images: L-R: Marilyn Monroe, 1962, by Allan Grant, © 1962 MM LLC (Photographs by Allan Grant), www.marilynslostphotos.com; Marilyn Monroe, Mount Sinai, Long Island, 1952, by Eve Arnold, © Eve Arnold Estate; Marilyn Monroe, 1955, by Milton H. Greene, © 1962 MM LLC (Photograph by Allan Grant); Colour Her Gone, 1962, by Pauline Boty. © Pauline Boty Estate, Reproduction by permission of Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Purchased with the assistance of the Art Fund and the Friends of Wolverhampton Arts and Heritage.

The advent of photography revolutionised how we make and share images. The inventions of William Henry Fox Talbot and Louis Daguerre were rapidly adopted, and by the mid nineteenth century, travellers, merchants and diplomats were travelling around the world with a camera.

BRLSI’s new exhibition explains the early origins of photography and the difficulties that early photographers faced in the field. It might seem that the cities of Shanghai and Bath stood ‘worlds apart’ at this time, but these two collections of photographs draw interesting parallels and place them together in surprising ways. Carefully composed and wonderfully evocative, the images capture our attention and transport us back in time.

Francis Lockey’s calotypes, made from paper negatives, explore the Bath of 170 years ago, with some spots barely recognisable and others barely changed. The historic prints have been enlarged and reprinted especially for the exhibition so that the finest detail is visible while preserving the unique qualities of the original images.

Low light levels in a specially constructed booth enable the display of some original fragile negatives of Bath scenes (surprisingly crisp and clear considering they come from a time when photography was still in its infancy). Despite the many thousands of miles that separated the photographers in Bath and China, they were attracted by remarkably similar subjects; ancient buildings, bridges, gateways, and rural landscapes.

The photographs from China, taken at a time of great political strife during the Second Opium War, contain fascinating portraits of bankers, street traders, school children and diplomats, as well as rivers, pagodas and temples. Historic objects from the BRLSI collections, things like the hats, fans, children’s toys and shoes we glimpse in the photographic scenes of the daily life of Chinese people, bring the scenes to life and add depth and colour to the exhibition. The gallery space also delivers the chance to learn something of the early origins of photography.

For children visiting there are activities to fuel curiosity and capture the imagination and you may even want to keep a look out for BRLSI’s photography centred summer holiday workshops.

Worlds Apart: Rare Early Photographs of China and Bath
28 March-26 September 2026 (closed Sundaysand Bank Holidays)
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath, Somerset BA1 2HN
https://www.brlsi.org/whatson/worlds-apart-rare-early-photographs-of-china-bath/

Image: (left): Huxinting Teahouse, dubbed the ‘Willow Pattern Tea House’ by foreigners, 1850s; (right): Coal wharf on Kennet & Avon Canal, Bath, Francis Lockey,1856

A remarkable body of work by the late photographer Joyce Edwards is being unveiled for the first time in a new exhibition that reveals one of East London’s most extraordinary grassroots housing movements. Edwards, a Hampstead landlady turned passionate documentarian, ventured into the East End nearly 50 years ago to photograph the young squatters who were transforming derelict streets into vibrant, if precarious, homes.

Edwards passed away in 2023, just months before her hundredth birthday, leaving behind a substantial legacy of fine photographs—many lovingly printed in her own darkroom. Much of this work was nearly lost to time, but a recent discovery and archiving effort has brought her images back into the light.

In the 1970s, Edwards began photographing squats across London, a journey which took her from affluent locations such as The Bishops Avenue, now known as Billionaires’ Row—to the heart of Bethnal Green. There she encountered ‘the Triangle’, a cluster of streets near the Grand Union canal and Victoria Park. The houses on the Triangle had been earmarked for demolition to make way for the monstrous London Ringways motorway scheme that included the Eastway, a road straight through Victoria Park to the A12. Mercifully the plan was scrapped, but only after hundreds of residents had been decanted and rehoused. The empty houses were soon seized upon by young people and locals seeking an inexpensive and alternative way of life in the capital. Over 2 years, Edwards took their portraits, creating an intimate and richly detailed record of a unique community.  

The squatters' story is one of resilience and self-determination. The community of the Triangle did more than restore the homes; over the following years they established a Housing Co-op. Supported by SOLON Housing Association, the architect Julian Harrap and Cooperative Development Services (CDS), they convinced the Greater London Council and the Housing Corporation to eventually sell them the freeholds to all 79 properties. Today, the community continues to thrive as the Grand Union Housing Co-op. As Pete Bishop assures us, “The Co-op survives because of the involvement of the members and that we are fully mutual and, crucially, because our 1981 constitution includes a No Right to Buy clause.”

The exhibition brings together Edwards’ compelling portraits of the musicians, builders, painters, actors and radicals that occupied the Grand Union squats, alongside snapshots taken by the squatters themselves: vibrant Kodachrome slides, Polaroids, and drugstore prints that capture the spontaneity and creativity of life inside the Triangle. Together, these images form an unprecedented visual record of an East London community that refused to disappear.

Joyce Edwards: A Story of Squatters
13 February - 21 March 2026
Four Corners, 121 Roman Road, London, E2 0QN
Wednesday - Saturday 11am - 6pm. Free and open to all
See: https://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/whats-on/joyce-edwards-a-story-of-squatters

Women Photographers 1900–1975: A Legacy of Light celebrates the wide-ranging photographic practices of more than eighty women artists working between 1900 and 1975. Featuring prints, postcards, photobooks and magazines, the exhibition explores the role of photographers as image-makers, and the ways in which women artists create an image of themselves, of others, of the times – from images of the women’s suffrage movement at the turn of the twentieth century, through to the women’s liberation movement and beyond. From Melbourne to Tokyo, Paris to Buenos Aires, the exhibition showcases the works of trailblazing artists such as Berenice Abbott, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, Imogen Cunningham, Mikki Ferrill, Sue Ford, Christine Godden, Ponch Hawkes, Annemarie Heinrich, Ruth Hollick, Florence Henri, Kati Horna, Germaine Krull, Tina Modotti, Lucia Moholy, Toyoko Tokiwa, Yamazawa Eiko and many more.

The exhibition reflects a recent collecting focus on celebrating the contributions of women artists of the early twentieth century in the NGV Photography Collection. Featuring portraiture, photojournalism, landscape photography, photomontage, experimental avant-garde imagery and more, Women Photographers 1900–1975: A Legacy of Light presents the diverse work of women photographers against the backdrop of significant social, political and cultural events.

Opening in November 2025, the exhibition coincides with the fifty-year anniversary of International Women’s Year 1975, which established the United Nations’ annual celebration of International Women’s Day.

Women Photographers 1900–1975: A Legacy of Light
until 3 May 2026
NGV, Melbourne, Australia
See: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/women-photographers-1900-1975/

See: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/nov/30/women-photographers-1900-to-1975-a-legacy-of-light-in-pictures

Image: Gertrude KASEBIER, The gargoyle (c. 1900), platinum photograph, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Purchased through The Art Foundation of Victoria with the assistance of the Herald & Weekly Times Limited, Fellow, 1979. PH27-1979

Colmore BID is shining a spotlight on one of its most overlooked innovators, unveiling a brand-new exhibition Birmingham’s Photographic Pioneer’ honouring George Shaw (1818-1904). Produced by artist Jo Gane and organised and funded by Colmore Business District (BID), the free, open to all exhibition explores Shaw’s pioneering contributions to photography, science and civic life, and aims to restore his rightful place among the city’s celebrated figures. The exhibition builds on initial work by Pete James. 

While Birmingham proudly commemorates icons like Boulton and Watt, Benjamin Zephaniah, Ozzy Osbourne and even the fictional Tommy Shelby, George Shaw’s legacy has remained largely unrecognised – until now. Born in Dudley and the son of a glass maker, Shaw was a patent agent, chemist, artist and educator who made Birmingham’s first daguerreotype photograph in 1839. Shaw’s influence extended far beyond photography, lecturing widely on chemistry and scientific advancements. He played a key role in the city’s educational institutions, helping to establish Birmingham’s first free public library. His work caught the attention of scientist Michael Faraday, where Shaw collaborated with metallurgist John Percy on groundbreaking photographic experiments.

Designed and arranged by Birmingham designer Stacey Barnfield, the exhibition is located at the West Midlands Metro Town Hall stop, outside Queens College Chambers, a key building where Shaw lectured and undertook his practice. It will showcase reproductions of rare daguerreotypes uncovered by the late Pete James, former curator of photographs at Birmingham Central Library. These images, now the subject of a practice-based PhD study by artist Jo Gane, offer a unique glimpse into Shaw’s artistic and scientific legacy. 

In partnership with the Colmore BID team, Gane has developed this exhibition to reconnect Birmingham with its innovative industrial and artistic past. She said: “It has been a privilege to research Shaw’s photographs and uncover the activities of his network in Birmingham that tells a fascinating story of art, science and industry.”

Exhibition highlights include reproductions of rare daguerreotypes and calotype photographs by George Shaw, archival materials and artworks from Shaw’s collaborations with John Percy and Frederick Henry Henshaw, insight into Shaw’s role in major exhibitions including the 1851 Great Exhibition and displays exploring early photographic processes and Birmingham’s role in their development.

Melanie Williams, Colmore BID Board Director and lead of Outstanding Places said: “George Shaws’ story is a powerful reminder of Birmingham’s legacy as a city of innovation and creativity. We’re proud to deliver this exhibition which not only celebrates a largely unrecognised pioneer, but also invites the city to better reflect and respect its rich industrial and artistic heritage.”

Birmingham’s Photographic Pioneer’ honouring George Shaw (1818-1904)
on view through November/December 2025
Outdoors, by West Midlands Metro Town Hall stop, outside Queens College Chambers, Birmingham
Produced by Jo Gane, with Birmingham BID
For more information, visit https://colmorebusinessdistrict.com/projects/george-shaw/.  

Installation shots courtesy Jo Gane.

Roger Mayne is one of the most significant and influential photographers in British history. His images captured the poverty and hardship of inner city life in West London in the late 1950s with a rare and touching sensitivity and tenderness. The people he photographed – especially the children – are full of joy, fun, energy and life. And they are absolutely obsessed with football.

OOF Gallery’s winter 2025 exhibition is the first ever show dedicated to the portrayal of football in Roger Mayne’s work, featuring original prints of some of his most notable and iconic photographs. The game (and here it is a game, not a sport) appears over and over in his photography: kids in shorts dive to save wild shots on hard concrete, leap into the sky to head the ball to a mate, dribble down the middle of the road. These are images of kids at play, doing what they do best. It's children living totally free, expressing themselves, even in unimaginably deprived circumstances. They are photographs of joy against the odds. Much of Mayne’s most important work has football at its heart. Through his eyes, it represents something we all seem to eventually forget: the simple ecstasy of youth.

Roger Mayne: ‘Football’
28 November 2025 - 1 March 2026 (closed 21 December to 14 January inclusive)
OOF Gallery, Warmington House, 744 High Road, London N17 0AP.
Admission is free. Use entrance for the Tottenham Experience at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Open Mon, Thu, Fri, 10-5, Sat 11-5 & Sun 12-4. Closed Tue & Wed. Opening hours are subject to change on event days.
See: https://oofgallery.com/

Image: Three young men and a boy playing football in Brindley Road. © Roger Mayne Archive _ Mary Evans Picture Library. Courtesy OOF Gallery