Top photography exhibitions in London

Leeds is another planet in this exhibition from veteran British photographer Peter Mitchell, a name nowhere near as well-known as contemporaries like Don McCullin or Martin Parr – but a truly worthwhile discovery if you’ve never heard of him. A Londoner who moved to Leeds in 1972 and never left, Mitchell’s photos in this small but transporting exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery take us on a tour of the backstreets and alleys of his adopted city, mainly during the 1970s, giving us proud shopkeepers and aproned artisans standing in front of crumbling premises.

Why go: When Mitchell was taking these photos, colour photography was barely respected. There’s now a retro appeal to his vision, but to his contemporaries, this was strange, modern, radical work.

Since the 1990s, the London-born photographer Eileen Perrier has used her camera to capture individuals in their local communities – from Peckham to Paris and beyond – and this show highlights some of her finest work. Expect to see striking portraits interrogating cultural belonging, beauty standards and the family home, from the nineties until the present day. 

Why go: Perrier’s photographs do a great job at capturing community and questioning narratives, and that’s not always a given in portraiture.

Like a blast of hairspray to the eyes, the Tate is about to blind you with the ’80s. This expansive, exhaustive and exhausting exhibition features dozens of photographers and hundreds of photographs depicting all the turbulence of that most turbulent of decades.

Why go? This show is a window into a turbulent past. 

For Brits of a certain age, The Face was the pop culture bible of their youth. Its pages were a chaotic, colourful blend of music, fashion, nightlife, and subcultural anthropology, combining the grit, tone, and subject matter of the era’s music publications with the creative flair, quality, and splashy colour photography of the big fashion magazines. And this exhibition is intent on bombarding you with as many of the publication’s brilliant photos as possible.

Why go: It’s vibrant, energetic and really, really cool.

Get past the dry sponsor’s name and there’s a terrific nominees exhibition here for this prestigious annual photography prize backed by a German finance company. This year’s judges have narrowed down four photographers – one each from Peru, South Africa, Spain and the USA – each nominated for a specific book or exhibition created in 2024. 

Why go: This is a great testament to just how differently artists can lean into photography in an age where believing what you see is becoming harder and harder.