PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITIONS

Beijing Olympics Photography Exhibition
Arranged in association with the Beijing Olympics Organising Committee and assisted by CTS Horizons, the exhibition will include a series of images depicting the Beijing Olympic bid, preparations for the Games, the Torch Relay in Beijing, public celebrations, Olympic athletes, Beijing Olympic imagery, the venues and infrastructure. The exhibition not only conveys the spirit and universal themes of the Olympics and the enormous sense of pride experienced in Beijing as a result of the city’s successful bid, but also highlights the growing links with Beijing as London itself prepares to host the games in 2012.
PLUS Scenes from China, an exhibition depicting natural landscapes and scenes from some of this vast country’s provinces. Arranged in association with China National Tourist Office.
City Hall
The Queen’s Walk, SE1 2AA
020 7983 4100
www.london.gov.uk
27 January–28 February
Monday - Friday 8am–8pm
(Also Saturday 4/Sunday 5 Feb 10am-5pm)
FREE

The National Photographic Record
Before the National Portrait Gallery began to display photographs in the 1970s, a remarkable collection of over 10,000 photographic portraits was created documenting leading figures in British society from World War One up until the ‘Swinging Sixties’. This display highlights these
and features works by the three National Photographic Records (NPR) photographers, Walter Stoneman, Walter Bird and Godfrey Argent.
The National Photographic Record was started in 1917 during the first World War at the instigation of Walter Stoneman, the chief photographer for the long established firm of Russell & Sons. A selected range of eminent people of the day were invited to make an appointment to sit at Stoneman’s studio and from each sitting a mounted print was added to the NPR. The collection was for record purposes only with no intention of the results being exhibited.
National Portrait Gallery
Bookshop Gallery and room 31
St Martin’s Place
London WC2H 0HE
020 73060055
www.npg.org.uk
Commissioning Photographs
1917-1971
23 January - 4 June 2006
Daily 10am – 6pm
Thu-Fri 10am – 9pm
FREE

Rocket & Tea, Gallery & Bookshop
In the first you will find a photographic exhibition from Danish photographer Keld Helmer Petersen, considered the pioneer of colour photography. Helmer is widely credited for using colour photography as fine art in the late 40’s, when only black and white photography was considered acceptable as an art form.
Accompanying the frames on the walls are some classic pieces of Kjærholm furniture, representing and celebrating the close friendship and working relationship between the two artists. It’s an interesting set, worth visiting, if not for anything else, for the historical value
of the collection.
The bookshop is in a little room in the back of the gallery, neat, bright and the repertory is of good taste. It stocks books on typography, architecture, design, photography and art. Most of the books are from artists that work, or have worked, with the gallery within the ten years of its existence. Opening in W1 and moving to E1 in April 2005, when they moved to the Tea Building. Lucky us, to have another modish place to visit and feast our eyes.
Rocket
Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JJ
020 77297594
www.rocketgallery.com
Opening Hours:
Tue – Fri 10am – 6pm
Sat – Sun 12midday – 6pm
FREE

Suki Dhanda: Year of the Dog
Suki Dhanda has photographed Londoners and their dogs to celebrate the new Chinese Zodiac Year of the Dog.
10 portraits of dogs and their owners are on display at London Underground stations across zones 1 – 3.
Platform for Art is also inviting the public to submit photographs of themselves with their dogs for a special exhibition on the Platform for Art website.
Visitors to the Photographers Gallery website (www.photonet.org.uk) will be able to upload their photographs until 28 February 2006. The selected photographs will then be exhibited on the site for one year. Visit Platform for Art for more information.
Suki Dhanda: Year of the Dog
The Photographers Gallery/
London Underground
5 & 8 Great Newport Street
London WC2H 7HY
020 7831 1772
www.photonet.org.uk
www.tfl.gov.uk/pfa
Opening Hours:
Mon to Sat 11:00—18:00
Thu 11:00—20:00
Sun 12:00—18:00
FREE

Royal Court Theatre: A Celebration of Fifty Years
Photographic portraits of writers, directors and actors closely associated with London’s Royal Court Theatre 1955-2005
To celebrate the Royal Court Theatre’s 50th anniversary in April 2006, a new display at the National Portrait Gallery will show photographs of actors, directors and writers who have enjoyed a close association with a company renowned for its commitment to new writing and for premiering some of the seminal plays of the last fifty years.
Since 1956 the Royal Court has staged more than 800 plays. Royal Court Theatre: A Celebration of Fifty Years draws exclusively from the Gallery’s own Collection. Portraits on display range from Ida Kar’s photograph of first artistic director George Devine in 1958 to one of today’s leading stage-and-screen actresses Sophie Okenedo by Sal Idriss in 2002. In between, are classic studies of Harold Pinter and Glenda Jackson by Bill Brandt, Jonathan Pryce by Snowdon, Arnold Wesker by Cecil Beaton and Joe Orton by Lewis Morley.
Royal Court Theatre: A Celebration of Fifty Years
25 January - 2 July 2006
National Portrait Gallery
Balcony Gallery
St Martin’s Place
London WC2H 0HE
020 73060055
www.npg.org.uk
Daily 10am – 6pm
Thu-Fri 10am – 9pm
FREE

Stories from India and Cuba
This exhibition is as unexpected as the artist herself, on display in the reception room of an NHS hospital. Maggie Sully has worked in the NHS in Clinical Neurophysiology since 1967, and for almost as long, she has produced diverse, social and political photographic projects capturing the stories of many meetings and meaningful encounters.
The exhibition is clearly the work of an enthusiast, rather than of a professional, but that is exactly its merit. All the frames are different and some were hand painted with vivid colours. As a group, the images – eighteen in total – are inconsistent, but many beautiful landscapes and portraits are amongst them.
The St. Bartholomew’s Hospital is right behind the Smithfield Market. If in the area, go check it out. Va prestigiar. It’s not very often that we get to see photography work that is fresh and uncompromised.
The exhibition is a Vital Arts* project, the arts charity for Bartholomews and the London NHS Trust. The prints are all for sale and 33% of the profits will benefit future hospital arts projects.
St. Bartholomew’s Hospital
Outpatients Hall, West Smithfield
London EC1A 7BE
Vital Arts: 020 74804654
15 December 2005 – 31 March
2006
Daily 9am – 5pm
FREE