Viewing Room | Huxley-Parlour

White Roses, c. 1900

CHARLES JONES

Born in 1866, Charles Jones worked as a gardener on the estates of several great houses and received recognition for his horticultural skills. His photographic work, however, was largely unknown in his lifetime, even to his family. His body of work constitutes one of the most unique contributions to the history of photography.

Grotto in Berg, Terra Nova in the Distance, 5th January 1911

HERBERT PONTING

Herbert Ponting is a photographer best known for his images of Captain Scott’s Antarctic Expedition in the early 1900s. This photograph, Grotto in Berg, is a triumph of composition, elegance, and majesty given the context of both his cumbersome photographic equipment and the gruelling conditions in which he worked.

Fashion Photo in NYC Penthouse for ‘Vogue’, 1931

EDWARD STEICHEN

Edward Steichen was one of the twentieth century’s most dynamic and significant photographic figures. Beginning as a key member of the Pictorialist movement and the Photo-Secession in the early 1900s, he moved on to become an innovator in both Modernism and then fashion photography.

Greta Garbo, 1928

EDWARD STEICHEN

Edward Steichen has had one of the most varied careers of any photographer, beginning as a key member of the Pictorialist movement and the Photo-Secession in the early 1900s, to a successful fashion photographer, a Captain of a Naval aerial photography division through to the directorship of the department of photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York from 1947-1961.

Nude, 1936

EDWARD WESTON

This most famous of images by Edward Weston depicts Charis Wilson, Weston’s most important model, as well as his long time collaborator, muse and second wife. The photograph is one of the great master’s most accomplished studies of form and light, presenting Wilson’s body as a tangle of graceful limbs, lit by stark, even sunlight, perfectly framed by deep shadows.

Tallulah Bankhead, 1930s

CECIL BEATON

Placing himself at the centre of fashionable society in the 1920s, Cecil Beaton became a prominent member of the ‘Bright Young People’, and photographed a generation of glitzy young socialites, heiresses, and artists. Beaton comprehensively captured this eccentric and creative era of British cultural life and his photographs provide a fascinating record of this enduringly popular group.

Teddy Thurman, New York, 1945

ERWIN BLUMENFELD

Erwin Blumenfeld was one of the greatest innovators of twentieth-century photography. From his early Parisian black and white nudes to his colourful and glossy fashion photography made in 1950s and 60s New York, he consistently pushed both stylistic and technical boundaries.

A Snicket in Halifax, 1937

BILL BRANDT

German-born photographer Bill Brandt began to document the British class system in 1936. His interest in English culture and the remnants of Victorian tradition led many biographers to conclude that Brandt was British by birth, despite him only having permanently settled in Belsize Park, London in the early 1930s, in his late 20s. Brandt’s reading of George Orwell’s essays and J. B. Priestley’s 1934 text, An English Journey – credited with contributing to Labour’s 1945 election victory – in the intervening years incentivised an extension of his survey beyond the confines of London’s high society.

Jarabina, 1963

JOSEF KOUDELKA

Josef Koudelka’s work includes some of the most important bodies of work of the twentieth century, yet his photography is often under acknowledged. A member of Magnum Photos agency since 1974, Koudelka has spent over four decades travelling and photographing in every corner of Europe.

Boy Destroying Piano, Wales, 1961

PHILIP JONES GRIFFITHS

This photograph, captured by Welsh photographer Philip Jones Griffiths, describes a startling scene in which a young boy prepares to hurl a rock onto a derelict piano. It is one of the most celebrated of Griffiths’ works of Great Britain.

The Card Players, 1955

RUTH ORKIN

Ruth Orkin is widely celebrated for breaking into the largely male-dominated photojournalism scene of mid-twentieth century New York. Her work is set apart from that of her peers by its humour and wit, as well as her singular perspective as a filmmaker. The daughter of a silent film actress, Orkin moved to New York City from the West Coast of America in 1943.

Handstand, Southam Street, London, 1956

ROGER MAYNE

The images which Roger Mayne captured between 1956 and 1961 at Southam Street, London represent the most significant personal and professional project of his career. At that time, Southam Street in North Kensington had changed little since Victorian times and was later declared uninhabitable, making way for Erno Goldfinger’s Brutalist Trellick Tower in 1963.

Brooklyn Gang (Couple in the Park at Dusk), 1959

BRUCE DAVIDSON

Bruce Davidson is one of the most acclaimed photographers of the twentieth century, celebrated for his in-depth explorations of his subjects and as a pioneer of photojournalism. A long-time member of Magnum Photos, his numerous photo-essays have become some of the most important bodies of work in the history of the medium.

Salerno, Italy, 1933

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON

Henri Cartier-Bresson is perhaps the most significant photographer of the twentieth century. Striving for a perfect balance of content and formal composition in all his work, Cartier-Bresson brought a new aesthetic and practice to photography, initiated modern photojournalism, and influenced countless followers.

Alberto Giacometti , Galerie Maeght , Paris , 1961

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON

Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photography capitalises on everyday symmetries and balanced, geometrical compositions. As with most of Cartier-Bresson's oeuvre, this portrait of artist Alberto Giacometti is not only formally composed, but is also symbolically charged.

Michael Caine, 1965

DAVID BAILEY

David Bailey stands among the most famous British photographers of recent history, and his seismic work, largely shot for British Vogue during the second half of the twentieth century, contributed towards the formulation of London as the global creative centre it is known as today. Whilst his fashion work remains highly revered, it is Bailey’s portraiture that truly captures Britain’s collective memory of the 1960s.

David Bowie as ‘Aladdin Sane’, 1973

BRIAN DUFFY

Alongside David Bailey and Terence Donovan, Brian Duffy revolutionised the photography, design and fashions of post-war London. In the increasingly liberated environment of the 1960s, Duffy became one of the most celebrated photographers of the era. It is his collaborations with David Bowie, beginning in 1972, however, which have proven to be the photographer’s lasting influence.

Nightview, New York, 1932

BERENICE ABBOTT

Berenice Abbott arrived in New York in 1929, leaving her career as a portrait photographer in Paris. She found New York in the midst of its second great building boom but only months after her return, the stock market crashed and the United States began to spiral into the Great Depression.

Atom Bomb Sky, New York, 1955

WILLIAM KLEIN

William Klein is a photographer renowned for his revolutionary street and fashion photography, celebrated for his heavy use of wide-angle telephoto lenses, natural lighting, and motion blur. In the 1950s and 1960s, he paid homage to European experimentalism while pioneering a new, American style of street photography.

Mainbocher Corset, 1939

HORST P HORST

Horst P Horst produced some of the most iconic fashion images ever created, and Mainbocher Corset is his most celebrated photograph. It has become one of the most recognisable fashion photographs of the twentieth century.

Versace Dress Back View, El Mirage, 1990

HERB RITTS

Herb Ritts was one of the most important fashion photographers of the 1980s and 1990s. His pictures redrew the boundaries of fashion imagery and reconsidered the nude in photography. Characterised by intimacy as well as strong forms and clean lines, his photographs have a simplicity that is instantly appealing and yet belies the significant way in which they sought to challenge conventional notions of both beauty and of photography.

Duchess of Windsor, New York, 14th July 1948

IRVING PENN

Irving Penn’s contribution to photography, including portraiture, still-lifes and fashion photography have made him one of the most acclaimed photographers in the history of the medium. His decades long career created some of the most important photographs of the twentieth century.

Cigarette 42, New York, 1972

IRVING PENN

In the early 1970s, Irving Penn began collecting cigarette butts he found discarded on the streets and bringing them back to his studio where he photographed them grouped together, in pairs and as singular objects. This print, numbered 42 in the series, depicts a pair of cigarette butts photographed in close-up against a plain background.

Tulips, 1988

ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE

At the time of his death in 1989, aged 42, Robert Mapplethorpe had become one of the most renowned artists of the era, and was hailed as the greatest studio photographer of his generation.

Lisa Lyon, 1981

ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE

Robert Mapplethorpe rose to simultaneous fame and notoriety in the 1980s for his controversial and challenging imagery that sought to upend traditional notions of beauty. His photography meditates on classical beauty as a genre, and his prolonged collaboration with the bodybuilder, Lisa Lyon, pictured here, is a testament to his engagement with idealised form.

Untitled, (‘Madonna’), 1975

CINDY SHERMAN

Cindy Sherman is one of the most important artists working with the photographic medium of the last fifty years. Her work seeks to challenge stereotypes and the concept of ‘the original’ in visual culture. Her prolonged exploration of photographic representation and performativity has gained her significant critical acclaim.

Andy Warhol, New York City, 1973

ARNOLD NEWMAN

Arnold Newman is best known for his environmental portraits of towering twentieth-century figures spanning the fields of art and industry. His portraits requisition the use of contextual background information and symbolic objects to distil a sitter down to their most universal characteristic.

Self-Portrait in Drag, 1981

ANDY WARHOL

Andy Warhol’s art mediates on the themes of spectacle, consumerism, and self-fashioning. This Polaroid, taken as a part of a series in 1981, is no exception. Warhol’s fascination with the Polaroid camera enabled him to take pictures of friends, celebrities and artists at the press of a button. He created just over 20,000 portraits in his artistic career, including pictures of Grace Jones, Jane Fonda, and Jack Nicholson.

Herrenhausen, Hanover, Germany, 1970

DAVID HOCKNEY

David Hockney is amongst the most influential British artists of the twentieth century. Known for his involvement in the development of British Pop Art, as well as his early explorations of the painterly potential of acrylic, Hockney is a hugely versatile artist who has also worked in printmaking, photocollage and photography over his seven-decade career.

Triptych (Winding Towers and Furnace), 1967

BERND AND HILLA BECHER

Bernd and Hilla Becher are celebrated for their extensive documentation of Western industrial and vernacular architecture. For decades the pair systematically photographed water towers, gas tanks, factory facades and cooling towers across Europe and the United States.

A Farm Pond About to Be Destroyed by Earth-Moving Machinery, the North Edge of Denver, Colorado, 1973

ROBERT ADAMS

Robert Adams is known for his work that investigates urban encroachment into the American landscape. For 45 years, Adams photographed the American west, recording both the expansive natural beauty found there, and the industrialisation, consumerism and pollution that threatened to alter that beauty.

Dairyland Sign, Dusk, Provincetown, 1976

JOEL MEYEROWITZ

Joel Meyerowitz is one of the most highly regarded photographers of the second half of the twentieth century. Alongside William Eggleston and Stephen Shore, he drove the repositioning of colour photography from the margins to the mainstream. The recipient of two Guggenheim fellowships, his work has been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally.

Longnook Beach, 1983

JOEL MEYEROWITZ

Joel Meyerowitz is one of the most highly regarded photographers of the second half of the twentieth century. Alongside William Eggleston and Stephen Shore, he drove the repositioning of colour photography from the margins to the mainstream. The recipient of two Guggenheim fellowships, his work has been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally.

Roseville Cottages, 1976

JOEL MEYEROWITZ

Joel Meyerowitz is one of the most highly regarded photographers of the second half of the twentieth century. Alongside William Eggleston and Stephen Shore, he drove the repositioning of colour photography from the margins to the mainstream. The recipient of two Guggenheim fellowships, his work has been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally.

After a Flash Flood, Rancho Mirage, California, 1979

JOEL STERNFELD

Joel Sternfeld worked on his project, American Prospects, for eight years, traversing the length and breadth of America with his 8 x 10 inch viewfinder camera, in order to capture an essential character of the country. Visiting 49 states, Sternfeld photographed 1,200 scenes for the series, and perhaps one of the best known is the present photograph, After a Flash Flood.

Patrick, Palm Sunday, Baton Rouge, LA, 2002

ALEC SOTH

Alec Soth is one of the most influential and highly regarded photographers working today, known for his richly descriptive, large format photographs. His first publication, Sleeping By the Mississippi, has become one of the defining publications of the photo-book era, and is regarded as a seminal body of work from the recent history of photography.

Explore by Artist

Masters of photography Viewing Room

Works

CHARLES JONES

HERBERT PONTING

EDWARD STEICHEN

EDWARD STEICHEN

EDWARD WESTON

CECIL BEATON

ERWIN BLUMENFELD

BILL BRANDT

JOSEF KOUDELKA

PHILIP JONES GRIFFITHS

RUTH ORKIN

ROGER MAYNE

BRUCE DAVIDSON

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON

DAVID BAILEY

BRIAN DUFFY

BERENICE ABBOTT

WILLIAM KLEIN

HORST P HORST

HERB RITTS

IRVING PENN

IRVING PENN

ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE

ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE

CINDY SHERMAN

ARNOLD NEWMAN

ANDY WARHOL

DAVID HOCKNEY

BERND AND HILLA BECHER

ROBERT ADAMS

JOEL MEYEROWITZ

JOEL MEYEROWITZ

JOEL MEYEROWITZ

JOEL STERNFELD

ALEC SOTH

The Exhibition

Masters of Photography

Masters of photography
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