Elton John photo show at London’s V&A runs the gamut from Ai Weiwei to Cindy Sherman, fashion to 9/11’s Falling Man

The show of photos from Elton John’s collection covers seven decades of fashion and celebrity, and photojournalism of civil rights protests and other events

Photographers featured in Fragile Beauty at the V&A Museum in London include Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ai Weiwei, Cindy Sherman, and Richard Avedon

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Elton John, Egg On His Face, New York, 1999, by David LaChapelle is among 300 photos from the collection of Elton John and David Furnish on display in an exhibition, Fragile Beauty, at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum until January. Photo: David LaChapelle/Victoria and Albert Museum

Published: 6:15pm, 19 May 2024

An exhibition of photographs owned by singer Elton John is everything one might expect from a star who has a fascination with image, a love of excess and a very large budget. Understated, it isn’t.

The show, which opened last week at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, includes more than 300 pieces by 140 photographers selected from the vast collection of John and his husband David Furnish.

Covering the period from 1950 to the present day, they include iconic fashion shots by Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Herb Ritts, portraits of stars including The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and Chet Baker, and photojournalism capturing moments from the black civil rights movement of the 1960s in the United States to 1980s Aids activism and the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington DC.

“It’s a little bit overwhelming sometimes, but it’s just wonderful,” Newell Harbin, director of the couple’s collection, said at a preview on Wednesday.

Some of Elton John’s photos in the Fragile Beauty exhibition at the V&A Museum in London. Photo: Victoria and Albert Museum

The exhibition is entitled “Fragile Beauty”, a name chosen by John that reflects his ethos, said curator Duncan Forbes, the museum’s head of photography.