Friends Preview Weekend: Unearthed: Photography's Roots

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A first look at our major new exhibition, Unearthed: Photography’s Roots, exclusively for Friends

Friends have the special opportunity to see Unearthed: Photography's Roots before anyone else. The show brings together over 100 works from 41 leading international artists, tracing the history of photography from its early pioneers in the 1840s to today’s leading innovators.

Highlights include some of the first known Victorian images by William Henry Fox Talbot, with his experiments with paper negatives, as well as works by one of the first female photographers Anna Atkins, and rare coloured photographs by Japanese artist Kazumasa Ogawa.  The show culminates with more recent advancements in photography, from the glamour and eroticism of artists Robert Mapplethorpe and Nobuyoshi Araki, to experimentations with still life compositions by Ori Gersht, Richard Learoyd and Joy Gregory. Read more here.

Friends will also have the first chance to see a brand new re-hang of the Collection - the first complete reinstallation since 2013 - including a gallery devoted to British portraiture, with masterful paintings by Gainsborough, Reynolds and van Dyck hanging together for the first time in many years. Plus, you’ll be the first to see our reimagined welcome space and mural, The Grand Tour, designed by British-Balinese artist, Sinta Tantra. 

This preview is exclusively for Friends. Find out more and join here.

Friends need to book their free visit to the Preview Weekend in advance, online via this page.

Images: Richard Learoyd, Large Poppies (detail) 2019 © the Artist. Image courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery. Charles Jones, Broccoli Leamington, c.1895-1910, © Sean Sexton, Photo copyright Dulwich Picture Gallery. Kazumasa Ogawa, Morning Glory from ‘Some Japanese Flowers’ ca. 1894. Photo copyright Dulwich Picture Gallery.