PHOTO LONDON 2025
TENTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Somerset House, London
15 - 18 May 2025
Tower Bridge, London, 2012
© Idris Khan, Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro
Acorazada Guerrera, 2020
© Lucia Pizzani, Courtesy Victoria Law
Plant Portraits or Weeds & Aliens Studies Sisymbrium
irio L.- London Rocket 130 Yellow 130 Magenta 0 Cyan 25s, April 2017
Courtesy Chrystel Lebas
Photo London marks its 10th anniversary in May with a special edition celebrating London and its rich traditions of photography. The Fair returns to Somerset House, from 15-18 May 2025 with previews on 14 May.
Photo London Founders Michael Benson and Fariba Farshad, said: “We are excited to be welcoming such a strong group of international galleries for our landmark tenth edition at Somerset House, including several that have participated in every Fair since the very beginning, and others returning after an absence especially to celebrate this landmark moment with us. We are set to host our largest ever number of collectors and acquisition groups from across the world, attracted by our special anniversary programme including a major exhibition celebrating London and its rich traditions of photography that platforms the city itself this year’s Master of Photography. This exhibition is a testament to all that Photo London has achieved in its first decade during which we have worked closely with the photography community to establish London as an important global hub for the medium. We also celebrate the important role of the book in the photography ecosystem through the creation of a weekend book market for independent publishers, and further expand our long tradition of support for emerging artists through the launch of the new Positions section of the Fair providing a platform for unrepresented artists supported by collectors.”
PHOTO LONDON 2025 EXHIBITORS
Photo London 2025 has confirmed a strong list of international participants featuring several galleries that have exhibited at every edition of the Fair since 2015 including: Robert Hershkowitz Ltd (Lindfield) bringing a selection of historic images of London; Purdy Hicks Gallery (London) presenting a booth dedicated to women artists; CAMERA WORK (Berlin) showing a curated selection of classic and contemporary masterpieces ranging from Irving Penn’s legendary work ‘Mouth’ to Chris Levine’s portrait of Queen Elizabeth II; and Bildhalle (Zurich) exhibiting a curated booth including rare vintage prints from the 1949 London series by avant-garde Swiss photographer René Groebli.
Several galleries are presenting solo booths, including: ROSEGALLERY (Santa Monica) returning with Tania Franco Klein, the recipient of the Photo London Emerging Photographer award in 2018; Galerie Bacqueville (Lille) showing a selection of previously unseen works by David de Beyter from his series ‘The Skeptics’; Guerin Projects (London) bringing abstract works on the theme of love by British-American Robin Hunter Blake; Polka Galerie (Paris) presenting Platinum palladium prints by Photo London’s inaugural Master of Photography Sebastião Salgado; and UP Gallery (Taiwan) graduating from Discovery to the main gallery section with a solo presentation of unique works by Taipei-based Mia Liu.
Amongst the galleries celebrating the tenth edition of Photo London with a highlights presentation of greatest hits from the last ten years is Peter Fetterman Gallery (Santa Monica), whilst Amar Gallery (London) presents work by Dora Maar, the Surrealist photographer immortalised as Pablo Picasso's ‘Weeping Woman’ and the official photographer to the Black Panther Party, Stephen Shames. The Music Photo Gallery dedicate their booth to classic images of musicians including Bob Dylan and John Lennon and Podbielski Contemporary (Milan) return with a focus on the Middle East including works by Shadi Ghadirian (Tehran), Rania Matar (Lebanon), Steve Sabella (Palestine) and Yuval Yairi (Israel) creating a dialogue between cultures, faith and current realities.
A strong Latin and South American focus is present at the fair with Bendana-Pinel (Paris) and ROLF (Buenos Aires) showcasing contemporary artists from the region while David Hill Gallery (London) will bring vintage photographs by Graciela Iturbide. Another Discovery section graduate EUQINOM Gallery (San Francisco) bring a curated booth of women artists using alternative photographic techniques including cyanotypes by Adama Delphine Fawundu and photograms by Klea McKenna, whilst first-time exhibitors Close Gallery (Somerset) showcase work by Canadian artist Carali McCall who will also do a live performance at the Fair.
2025 sees the return of the special partnership with TurkishBank UK that brings exciting galleries from the region to London including Vision Art Platform, Kairos and Simbart Projects (all Istanbul) who will bring a solo booth of Begüm Mütevellioğlu including unseen work using a gum bichromate photography technique that will allow her to merge photographic print with painting. Belmond returns to Photo London with the second instalment of its acclaimed ‘Belmond Legends’ series, which commissions evocative travel photography "As Seen By" world-renowned artists. For 2025,
Belmond presents an exclusive solo exhibition by renowned American photographer Colin Dodgson. This original collection chronicles extraordinary journeys aboard two of Belmond’s iconic sleeper trains: the Andean Explorer, which winds through the majestic high Andes of Peru, and the Eastern & Oriental Express, which meanders through the lush Malaysian jungle. The Peru series is hand-printed by the artist and an accompanying collectible art book of Colin Dodgson's Andean Explorer series, along with previously unseen images, will be published by the esteemed Parisian art house RVB Books. The book will be available through RVB Books' global distribution network, including select bookstores, galleries, and online platforms.
Photo London Director, Sophie Parker, said: “While we are a photography specific fair, the works exhibited go far beyond images hung on walls. Photography can include sculpture, painting, performance, fabric, moving image, and even sound, and at Photo London we celebrate photography as an art object in all its forms. For our tenth anniversary edition I’m incredibly excited to see such a strong group of presentations by galleries from all over the world and I look forward to welcoming a mix of old friends and new faces to Somerset House.”
PHOTO LONDON 2025: DISCOVERY
Photo London’s Discovery section is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading platforms for emerging photographers and galleries. Curated by the critic and author Charlotte Jansen, Discovery once again promises to be a highlight of the Fair featuring around 20 galleries including exciting newcomers such as Mortal Machine Gallery (New Orleans) showcasing Bee Gats, a photographer developing a reputation for his gritty, raw and unfiltered portraits of Miami's underground. Other highlights include Victoria Law (London) bringing Venezuelan-born Lucia Pizzani whose photo-based works and sculptures tells stories about colonialism and nature through her use of charged materials such as pre-Hispanic tree bark paper, Contour Gallery (Amsterdam) showcasing late career artist Margriet Smulders who creates beautiful, large-scale tableau with flowers riffing on Dutch traditions in painting, and Roman Road (London) presenting Polina Piech, who graduates from the RCA this year, and is interested in capturing the movement of natural environments, working like a painter ‘en plein air’.
Photo London Discovery section Curator, Charlotte Jansen, said: “The Discovery section at Photo London has always been, for me, the most exciting area of the Fair. As the name implies, it’s where you might find things that you’ve never seen before, which is quite a rarity these days, given our image-saturated culture. I am excited to see a sharp shift away from portraiture towards semi-abstraction and abstraction across many booths this year and to witness the ways contemporary artists are using the camera in a painterly way, like a brush, with captivating results.”
PHOTO LONDON 2025: POSITIONS
Photo London’s Positions is a unique initiative that aims to extend Photo London’s role as a champion of emerging talent. Curated by arts patron and founder of the ISelf Collection, Maria Sukkar, Positions is a distinct section within the Fair that constitutes a significant platform for unrepresented photographic artists. Positions offers a truly unique opportunity for a group of collectors and patrons of the arts to play an invaluable role to support unrepresented artists to show their work side-by-side with galleries in a traditional art fair format. Positions features an exciting group of artists including Adam Rouhana, Giulia Mangione, Tim Rudman, Roberto Conde, Bibi Setareh Manavi, Kalpesh Lathigra and Aikaterini Gegisian.
Photo London Positions Curator, Maria Sukkar, said: “I’m incredibly excited about Positions – it’s such a bold and forward-thinking initiative that feels especially needed right now. Photography, as a medium, is still burgeoning in terms of the market, and galleries are often hesitant to take on photographers until much later stages in their careers. This section fills that gap by providing a vital platform for unrepresented talent, offering them the recognition and opportunities they might not otherwise have. Ultimately, my hope is that Positions not only elevates these voices but also reshapes how collectors and curators engage with emerging photographers, solidifying its place as a catalyst for innovation within the art fair model.”
PHOTO LONDON 2025: SPECIAL EXHIBITION ‘LONDON LIVES’
Presented in both the Embankment East & West Galleries at Somerset House, the special exhibition ‘London Lives’ curated by critic and author Francis Hodgson features a dazzling array of creative responses to the City by around 30 of its leading image makers including David Bailey, James Barnor, Antony Cairns, Jamie Hawkesworth, Hannah Starkey, Joy Gregory, Nadav Kander, Idris Khan, Rut Blees Luxemburg, Christian Marclay, Mary McCartney, Simon Roberts, Mitra Tabrizian and Nick Turpin. The exhibition also includes new commissions from Heather Agyepong, Jermaine Francis and Hannah Hughes, whose work will also be published exclusively in the FT Magazine as part of Photo London’s longstanding partnership with FT Weekend. This ambitious and wide-ranging exhibition is both an ode to London and the photography it has inspired.
Curator of ‘London Lives’, Francis Hodgson, said: “For a few days in the spring of every year, Photo London has ruled over London from its great palace on the Thames. As we celebrate its tenth anniversary, we remember that is just the point. Photo London is not a virtual fair, anywhere. Its participants – photographers, publishers, galleries and the rest – come from all over the world and have turned their eyes on every part of it and all its goings-on. But it remains a London fair, anchored in its host city. So we thought for the anniversary we’d celebrate London and what people get up to there. London, like all the really great cities in the world, has something of everything, and people from everywhere. Call it a melting-pot if you want; but we simply call it ‘London Lives’. The more the merrier.”
PHOTO LONDON 2025: BOOK MARKET
For the 2025 edition of Photo London, Ben Goulder curates the Fair’s first weekend Book Market (15-17 May) championing the vibrant and diverse communities of independent publishers and showcasing their artistry and vision on a global stage. London is a hub for independent arts publishing, and this new space features a broad selection of photography and arts publishing – from larger publications to zines, pamphlets, and other ephemera—with the aim of bringing diversity and innovation to the Photo London audience.
Highlights include 'Terminating Martin' Parr by Tom Pope, a conceptual debut publication from Folium Publishing that documents a 7-hour performance where Tom Pope destroyed 17 photographs by Martin Parr, Gareth McConnell’s 'Details of Sectarian Murals' published by Sorika that turns Northern Ireland’s strident political murals into mesmerising abstractions, and 'State of Emergency' by Max Pinckers that is the result of a decade-long collaboration with Mau Mau freedom fighters and survivors of colonial violence in Kenya.
Photo London Book Market Curator, Ben Goulder, said: “This initiative aims to bring together the best in photography publishing. From experimental approaches to photo book publishing, queer zines, risography, and artist monographs, the market highlights publishers who are pushing the medium forward. It is a celebration of print as a dynamic, time-based artform that bridges disciplines and fosters connections, while also emphasising the importance of small presses and DIY approaches to making publications.”
PHOTO LONDON 2025 AWARDS
Since its inception Photo London has run an annual award for an outstanding artist. In many cases the winner of the award has gone on to achieve significant international recognition such as the 2021 winner Heather Agyepong. For each of the past five editions the award has been presented in partnership with Nikon.
In 2025 the Photo London x Nikon Emerging Photographer of the Year Award again highlights outstanding emerging photographers with shortlisted work presented in a special display at the Nikon Gallery at the Fair.
The Photo London x Hahnemühle Student Award returns to the Fair for the third time. Working with UK universities offering photography degrees, the award highlights the most exciting early-career talent within the industry, bringing their portfolios to international attention. The shortlisted students are granted the opportunity to print 5-10 artworks on their preferred Hahnemühle papers and present them in a dedicated exhibition at Photo London 2025. The winner is further awarded with a trip to the Hahnemühle mill in Germany to produce a new body of photographic work.
PHOTO LONDON