As London prepares for a landmark Pride Parade this weekend – 50 years after homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales – The Photographer’s Gallery has unveiled a special off-site exhibition of images at the City Hall celebrating the LGBTQI movement in the British capital.
Titled ‘Love Happens Here’, the exhibition focuses on British photographers who have used their lens to document and empower the movement across the city as it has evolved over the past five decades, from breakthrough moments in politics and law, to important venues and spaces for the gay community, to snapshots of day-to-day life.
The earliest Gay Pride march took place in 1970, when 150 men walked across Highbury Fields in an act of political solidarity. In the 1980s, the marches began to include gay women – and it was at this time that Ian David Baker (at the time a contributing photographer to publications such as gay pin-up mag Mister) began to document the pride parades in pictures. In an iconic black and white image from 1980, Baker captures both the political defiance and the carnivalesque aspects of Pride, a combination that makes the annual event so unique with poe-faced protestors carrying placards, one dressed as a catholic nun.
Inside London’s Enduring Queer Club Scene, by Emily Rose England, 2016.
Other important historical moments are also reflected in photographs here, including responses to Section 28, the controversial legal amendment that prohibited promotion of homosexuality and education about homosexuality in schools, at the height of the AIDS crisis in 1988. Sunil Gupta’s portrait collages, combining words and images, insist on love as a human bond—no matter your sexuality or gender.
More recent images portraying LGBTQI life in London come from Emily Rose England, who organises Sassitude, a popular club night in East London, and captures the city’s gay nightlife in celebratory colour, while images from Tania Olive’s portrait series Dyke of Our Time explores the diversity of gay culture in a more intimate way, portraying women at home.
From personal to political, ‘Love Happens Here’ is ultimately a reflection on the progress galvanised by protest, the power of pride, and the triumph of love.
Inside London’s Enduring Queer Club Scene, by Emily Rose England, 2016.
Pride, by Ian David Baker, 1980.
Outside London Lesbian and Gay Centre, by Reggie Blennerhassett, ca 1980.
Untitled 6 from ’Pretended’ Family Relationships, by Sunil Gupta, 1988.
Vera from Dyke of our Time, by Tania Olive, 2012.
Mark Ashton’s Flat, by Reggie Blennerhassett, ca 1980.
Untitled 2 from ’Pretended’ Family Relationships, by Sunil Gupta, 1988.
Tigana Wesa Sari, born in Indonesia, living in London, by Kate Elliott, 2012.
INFORMATION
‘Love Happens Here’ is on view until 28 July. For more information, visit The Photographers’ Gallery website
ADDRESS
The Photographers’ Gallery
6-18 Ramillies Street
London W1F 7LW
-
The Wallpaper* Design Issue comes with our Salone del Mobile must-seesThe May 2025 issue of Wallpaper* is on sale now, taking in Milan Design Week, the Venice Biennale, and a very stylish tea party
-
Aboard Gio Ponti's colourful Arlecchino train in Milan, a conversation about design with FormafantasmaThe design duo boards Gio Ponti’s train bound for the latest Prada Frames symposium at Milan Design Week
-
The ultimate high-performance earbuds, courtesy of McLaren and Bowers & WilkinsThe new Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 McLaren Edition continues a decade’s worth of cross-pollination between these two tech-focused British manufacturers
-
Ed Atkins confronts death at Tate BritainIn his new London exhibition, the artist prods at the limits of existence through digital and physical works, including a film starring Toby Jones
-
Tom Wesselmann’s 'Up Close' and the anatomy of desireIn a new exhibition currently on show at Almine Rech in London, Tom Wesselmann challenges the limits of figurative painting
-
A major Frida Kahlo exhibition is coming to the Tate Modern next yearTate’s 2026 programme includes 'Frida: The Making of an Icon', which will trace the professional and personal life of countercultural figurehead Frida Kahlo
-
A portrait of the artist: Sotheby’s puts Grayson Perry in the spotlightFor more than a decade, photographer Richard Ansett has made Grayson Perry his muse. Now Sotheby’s is staging a selling exhibition of their work
-
Celia Paul's colony of ghostly apparitions haunts Victoria MiroEerie and elegiac new London exhibition ‘Celia Paul: Colony of Ghosts’ is on show at Victoria Miro until 17 April
-
Teresa Pągowska's dreamy interpretations of the female form are in London for the first time‘Shadow Self’ in Thaddaeus Ropac’s 18th-century townhouse gallery in London, presents the first UK solo exhibition of Pągowska’s work
-
Sylvie Fleury's work in dialogue with Matisse makes for a provocative exploration of the female form'Drawing on Matisse, An Exhibition by Sylvie Fleury’ is on show until 2 May at Luxembourg + Co
-
‘There's a lot to fear and a lot to love in this world’: Penny Goring unveils new work in LondonA new collection of large-scale collages takes centre stage at 'Penny Goring: Cold Hunt Corsage' at Arcadia Missa, London
