In collaboration with CROSSOVER Hamburg, from 22 June to 31 August 2023, Leica Gallery London will present photographs by Bryan Adams in partnership with Atlas Gallery London. The collection includes some of Bryan Adams’ most recognised portraits alongside a group of brand-new images. This exhibition is in partnership with ATLAS Gallery London, which will also show a corresponding exhibition focusing on his most recent work, with each gallery showing its own curated selection.
Bryan Adams is a Canadian musician, singer, composer, producer, photographer and philanthropist. A self-taught photographer, Adams began by documenting his own work on tour before he became a professional photographer in the late 1990s. He has photographed many fellow creatives and important individuals, including today’s most revered and loved musicians, actors, models, sportsmen and political figures, as well as the British Royal family. His portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip is held in the National Portrait Gallery collection in London, along with more than twenty other portraits by him.
In 2000 Adams played with The Who at the Royal Albert Hall, where he photographed both himself and the band for a booklet to accompany the DVD of the performance. Since then, he has shot record covers for Annie Lennox (The Annie Lennox Collection), Amy Winehouse (Lioness: Hidden Treasures), Status Quo (Aquostic – Stripped Bare), Diana Krall (Wallflower) and Anastacia (Ultimate Collection).
Bryan Adams has received two Lead Awards in Germany for his photography, for a series of portraits of Mickey Rourke (2006) and of Daphne Guinness (2012); examples from both these series are included in the Leica Gallery London exhibition. His first photographic book, Exposed, was published by Steidl in 2012 and dissects unknown facets of his friends and colleagues in the entertainment, fashion and art industries.
Adams was inducted into the Royal Photographic Society in 2015 and, in the same year, was approached to photograph The Big Issue vendors for a book. He has had major museum shows over the years, including the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf in 2013 and the MAMM in Moscow in 2012, which attracted over 60,000 visitors. More recently, in 2017, the Royal Ontario Museum presented Canadians by Bryan Adams to mark Canada’s 150th Anniversary; the exhibition featured 28 portraits of well-known Canadians, including Michael Bublé, Linda Evangelista and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
All works in both exhibitions are for sale. Not only is the artist introducing the use of coloured Plexiglas for the first time as part of the work, but also many of the photographs have remained previously unpublished until now. Bryan Adams’ works are held in European and international private and public collections.
All photographs reproduced with permission and supplied by the Leica Gallery London
More Macfilos reports on Leica Gallery London exhibitions
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Is he the musician from Bryan Adam’s and the ants?
Apparently, “ Adam and the Ants were an English rock band that formed in London in 1977”
Bryan was a Canadian musician and photographer. He did fashion photography, and, as the article establishes, celeb photography. Apparently he did some anti-war photography, but I can’t quite that down.
The underwhelming response to this article makes me examine my own feeling — there’s something not-quite-right about celeb on celeb photography. I have to remind myself that a successful artist in one field could well be a good photographer as well. David Suchet comes tomind — he’s appeared several times in these pages!
“..there’s something not-quite-right about celeb on celeb photography..”
Ellen von Unwerth? ..then again, there’s Brooklyn Beckham..
At least celebrities get an easy ride when getting other celebrities to pose for them. They have a head start on us poor mortals who have to stand behind the railings… Perhaps it’s an unfair advantage, with every one a winner.