Leica Gallery London is to present Charlie Gray’s inaugural exhibition, showcasing 12 epic portraits illustrating the stories of actors, artists, great entertainers and rock music royalty. The exhibition highlights work that contains his signature narrative style, which was partially born from his early love of cinema.
Photographing celebrities
Gray’s work for industry giants, such as BAFTA, Warner Bros, EON Productions, Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, focuses on portraiture and fashion. He also captures candid behind the scenes moments of beloved stars from film and theatre.
Gray began photographing while at university, becoming involved in various documentary projects. He acknowledges these formative years as a true learning curve in terms of technical and people skills. These later became invaluable to his photographic career. This was also a time when he digested photography books, specifically the work of Martin Parr and Don McCullin, among others.
His first commercial assignment was for BAFTA, enabling him to encounter prominent people from the film studios and entertainment industry, leading to portrait commissions and blue-chip magazine shoots. The rest is now history after his career path was paved, and his work has continued to gain gravitas since.
Shooting with Leica
All works in the exhibition are shot on Leica cameras including the Q, S-System and the SL-System. Gray cites the SL-System as giving him the freedom to produce the work he always wanted due to the way it captures light and the wide scope of lenses available.
The photographs in the exhibition are available for purchase. The exhibition will take place from 14 September to 29 October 2023 at the Leica Gallery, Duke Street, Mayfair.
Watch this video for Charlie’s personal take on his work
Read more about exhibitions at the Leica Gallery, London
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Superb photos. If anyone wants to see more of Charlie’s photos – and find out more about his Leica journey and the stories behind the photos, please consider viewing Robin Sinah’s podcast: “Charlie Gray: A Life Behind the Lens” – available on You Tube – it’s well worth watching.
Thanks, Dunk. I will add this to the article so future readers see it.
Great news – he’s a fine photographer
Quite an interesting set of portraits! Not at all what I expected from celebrity photos.