More Beautiful Than You: The Wildlife Photography of Chris Packham FREE ENTRY – NO TICKET REQUIRED
March 12 – April 11
ICONIC IMAGES GALLERY PICCADILLY
Combining formal ambition with an urgent contemporary message, the images in More Beautiful Than You are the result of careful premeditation, unerring attention to detail and rigorous visual editing. The result is an exhibition by turns beautiful, unsettling and uplifting, suffused with an ethical perspective that is impossible to ignore.
Breaking the familiar mould of the wildlife photographer as nature’s humble witness, Chris Packham does not simply watch and wait – he anticipates, researching his subjects and interacting with their environment in order to achieve compositions that had previously only existed in his mind. This shift from observation to orchestration is central to the unique, provocative power of Packham’s work.
From the ebony buffalo to the ghost-white spider, the animals in this exhibition transcend anthropocentric conceptions of beauty. Grounded or in flight, mud-caked or snow-flecked, dead or alive – they are More Beautiful Than You.
Picture This: Designing With Photography in Mind
March 6 – April 26
ICONIC IMAGES GALLERY CHELSEA
Great design doesn’t exist in isolation. It lives in dialogue: with architecture, with light, with material – and with art.
Our new exhibition at Iconic Images Chelsea – Picture This – running during London Design Week, explores the vital synergy between photography and design, both within the frame and beyond it.
Norman Parkinson’s classic shot of Maud Adams lying in a bed of flowers that merge with the purple paisley pattern of her dress; David Bowie balancing a Les Paul guitar on his hand; and The Cure’s Robert Smith brooding beside a vintage lithograph spinning top all demonstrate how the presence of design classics within portraiture can extend the composition, nesting art within art.
The photography of Anouk Krantz, which celebrates the cowboy aesthetic, and Charles Moriarty’s portrait of style icon Amy Winehouse, both express distinctive styles and serve as mirrors that reflect and amplify the aesthetic of the room in which they hang – be it a ranch house or a penthouse.
It Gets Loud: Gered Mankowitz at ME Hotel in collaboration with Iconic Images
January 27 – July 27 2026
Step back into a raucous and glittering era of music through the eyes and lens of Gered Mankowitz. Talk about being in the right place at the right time because Gered’s presence in the music industry saw him photographing the likes of The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Marianne Faithfull, Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, and the list keeps on going. Whether it’s album cover or studio session shoots, Gered captures these noise-makers in a light that’s equal parts legendary and common. Touring musicians spend much of their time on the road, pit-stopping in hotels all over the world. Hence, what better place for this exhibition of Gered’s photographs than the iconic ME Hotel. So when you’re looking at these works, read between the bass lines and hear the riffs radiating off them.
The Cure by Kevin Cummins and Richard Bellia
January 19 – February 02
In celebration of The Cure’s return to the Isle of Wight festival this June – photographs taken from the archives of two of The Cure's most authoritative visual chroniclers. Richard Bellia, whose access to The Cure has spanned decades, captures moments of introspection and stillness that occur on the edge of the public spectacle, revealing the interiority and focus driving the band’s creativity. Kevin Cummins, by contrast, brings a sharp graphic sensibility honed through his work in post-punk and alternative culture. His portraits of The Cure helped fix the band’s visual identity within the wider language of British music photography. On display here until the 2nd of February, these images celebrate a band that have achieved longevity without courting nostalgia or compromising on their founding aesthetic principles.
Hope by Cristina Mittermeier
October 9 – 23 2025
"For decades, as a photographer and marine biologist, I have travelled the globe to capture the beauty of our world’s biodiversity and the wisdom of those who honour and respect its ancient balance.
Hope is a universal hymn that reminds us that we all are part of the same humanity and that, despite everything that separates us and divides us, we have, deep within us, the desire for communion, peace, and harmony.
Across all cultures, stories and narratives, humans have always woven tales of hope."
— Cristina Mittermeier
Icons by Denis O'Regan
September 12 – 27 2025
When Denis O’Regan first saw David Bowie live in 1973 at the Hammersmith Odeon, the singer’s final performance as Ziggy Stardust left an indelible mark. At the time, O’Regan was working at a newsagents across from the studio where Bowie was recording Diamond Dogs – but within a year, his photographic journey had begun. With his £5 Zenith camera, he photographed Bowie, who in turn advised the young O’Regan to go and work for the NME.
The photographer’s relationship with David Bowie was one of the most productive in music photography history. O’Regan shot the Thin White Duke for the NME in 1978, and joined Bowie for his 1983 Serious Moonlight tour, during which he even gave Bowie feedback on his setlists. Over the decade that followed, O'Regan documented Bowie's transformation from a cult icon to a global superstar, capturing him onstage, offstage, and in intimate private moments.
The photographer’s new book, David Bowie, presents a personal edit of his unrivalled collection of photographs. Accompanying Bowie on two world tours and enjoying a decades-long relationship with the star, no one photographed Bowie more than Denis O’Regan. As David himself once remarked, “Denis, Rock ‘n’ Roll is in your blood.”
A View From the Bridge
A Photographic Celebration of Greater Kensington and Chelsea
June 12 – August 2025
A View from the Bridge tells the rich story of an iconic West London neighbourhood through the lenses of some of the most celebrated photographers of the 20th century.
Beginning with the post-war optimism of the 1950s, Michael Ward captured daily life in evocative black and white, setting the scene for a borough poised on the brink of transformation. The Swinging Sixties exploded onto the King's Road and its surrounding streets, immortalised by Norman Parkinson’s fashion shots of era-defining subjects and Terry O’Neill’s unmatched portraits of Twiggy, Mick Jagger and Michael Caine. Dick Polak documented vibrant street life, encapsulating the area's unique spirit and eclectic charm. The borough’s cultural identity continued to evolve through dynamic local fashion and music scenes, captured by Eva Sereny’s sumptuous study of Bianca Jagger and Gered Mankowitz’s early shots of the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix.
Cowboys: Spirit of the West
Piccadilly Gallery
May 12 – June 14 2025
This exhibition marks the first major European showing of Anouk Masson Krantz, whose striking black-and-white photographs offer a rare and deeply human glimpse into the contemporary American West. Over more than eight years and 125,000 miles, Krantz has earned the trust of remote ranching communities across the American continent – places where the cowboy is not a mythic figure, but a neighbour, a parent, a worker, and a guardian of tradition.
Born in France and now based in New York, Krantz’s minimalist compositions and unflinching naturalism avoid the romantic tropes that have long shaped popular images of the cowboy. Instead, these photographs celebrate a quiet endurance – a way of life grounded in labour, land, and legacy.
London Art Fair 2025
Somerset House
January 22 – January 26 2025
These highlights from the Iconic Images Gallery archive include some of the most famous and sought-after images in the history of music, sports, film and fashion, featuring subjects who defined their respective milieux, and taken by photographers who were pioneers in their field.
They tell a vibrant history of the photographic form from the mid-twentieth century onward, featuring the groundbreaking photojournalism of Eve Arnold, the rock and roll photography of Gered Mankowitz; Terry O’Neill’s era-defining images of the Swinging Sixties, 70s Hollywood and beyond; and the expertly captured 21st century celebrity photography of Greg Brennan.
Eve Arnold: An Appreciation
Piccadilly Gallery
November 4 – November 20 2024
Iconic Images Gallery in Piccadilly will be exhibiting “Eve Arnold: An Appreciation”, showcasing the diversity and depth of the Eve Arnold archive. The exhibition will feature some of her most iconic and highly sought-after portraits of Marilyn Monroe, as well as highlights from her acclaimed photojournalistic work, covering Malcolm X and the vibrant community of 1950s Harlem, Queen Elizabeth II, and the landscapes and lives of peasant farmers in late-1970s China.
Chasing Dreams: David Drebin
Piccadilly Gallery
OCTOBER 4 – OCTOBER 26 2024
Iconic Images Gallery in Piccadilly will be exhibiting “Chasing Dreams by David Drebin”, a celebration of the photography of American artist David Drebin, whose work combines elements of voyeurism and emotion, and invites viewers to delve into the dramatic, surreal, and hyperreal narrative moments captured through his lens. Comprising images that reveal the depth and diversity of Drebin’s photographic oeuvre, as well as new, unseen works that push the boundaries of his artistic expression, “Chasing Dreams” celebrates the art of seeing and the often turbulent pursuit of ideals.
Bright Lights, Big City 2024
Piccadilly Gallery
MARCH 8 – MAY 25 2024
The cities of the 20th century thrummed like magnets, drawing in their populations from rural hinterlands and across borders and seas, their lights glowing with the promise of prosperity, fortune and fame. In Chicago and New York, people filled cafes, catwalks and discos; Swinging 60s London became the epicentre of youth culture; the 70s saw nonconformists of every psychedelic stripe make LA and San Francisco their spiritual home. In this pre-internet age, cities were the connective hubs, the centres of cultural transfer and emergent communities.
In Style Exhibition
January 30 – March 30 2023
This exhibition comprises work from some of the most important photographers of the 20th century – including Terry O’Neill, Norman Parkinson, Gered Mankowitz, Douglas Kirkland, Milton Greene, Justin de Villeneuve – who captured fashion history as it unfolded from every angle.
Rollover Beethoven
Rock & Roll Exhibition: 1963-1973
FEBRUARY 13 – APRIL 13
In 1963, a youth-driven cultural revolution exploded onto the streets. Swinging London flooded Europe and America with its music, fashion and art. A young and restless post-war generation were making their own excitement and adventure. They rejected the music, clothes and social mores of their parents, picking up guitars, scissors and paintbrushes to take over stage, radio, television, galleries and catwalks; they filled pubs and clubs with a rock and roll sound whose roots reached back into the great blues music of the ’50s.