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A new and free exhibition has just opened beneath the South Bank's OXO Tower featuring 1001 photographs of London.
The collection of black and white images is the work of Steve Hollingshead, taken over 20 years of exploring the capital. As you can see from the tiny sample above, he's captured some quirky stuff. As Gallery@oxo puts it:
"Via epic outdoor events, forgotten social trends, now historic moments and quiet moments of spontaneity on street corners — this exhibition at gallery@oxo is his attempt to display, as broadly as possible, the elements that make post-Millennium London one of the most exciting cities in the world to live in and to visit."
Many of us have hundreds of London photos stashed away somewhere, but Hollingshead has a personal collection of 150,000 — all captured on proper, old-school camera film between 2000 and 2019.
The chosen photographs are presented in a seemingly random order, with only the dates displayed, "in order to invite viewers to engage with the images in a spontaneous way that inspires creativity, contemplation and curiosity". (And if you find that a bit annoying and want to know what the picture actually shows, then full details of each one are on the website.)
It's the second time Hollingshead's work has been shown at the Oxo Tower gallery. He presented 1001 of his more eccentric photographs back in 2016. This marks a welcome return.
1001 Days in London by Steve Hollingshead is at Gallery@oxo, Oxo Tower Wharf, Barge House Street SE1 9PH. Runs 18-28 April 2024, 11am-6pm. Entry is free.
