Over 300 prints from Elton John and husband David Furnish’s extensive photography collection which numbers over 7,000 works have gone on exhibit in London this past weekend.
Titled Fragile Beauty, the show at the V&A museum features over 140 photographers including Diane Arbus, Ai Weiwei, Sally Mann, Cindy Sherman, William Eggleston, Irving Penn, and many others.
The British pop icon tells Vogue that he became interested in photography just as he was leaving rehab after achieving sobriety.
“While Elton jumps in feet first,” says Furnish, “I love to know everything about the artist, the series, and their overall work and how all of that culminates to the piece in front of us.”
However, John says he has learned how to become more patient when hunting down a particular print, citing his search for Diane Arbus’ iconic Child With a Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, NYC which he says took years to find the perfect vintage print.
The exhibition, which will be on until January next year, follows on from a smaller exhibit John hosted at the Tate Modern in London in 2016.
Fragile Beauty marks 30 years of the singer’s collecting habit and it showcases the couple’s personal taste in photography. John tells Vogue that he knows instantly when he first sets eyes on a picture.
“The image must grab me the first moment I see it to have it join the collection. If the work is powerful enough, then I will have an emotional response immediately, whether it’s humor or desire or sadness,” he says.
“I’d hope that the viewer walks away not only inspired but also with an understanding of how David and I collect, how we want our collection to represent where photography was and where it is heading.”
Many photographs in John’s collection have LGBTQ+ themes; images taken by Nan Goldin and Ryan McGinley as well as artists Robert Mapplethorpe and Peter Hujar who both died from AIDS.
The expo also features a portrait of John taken by David LaChapelle; a humorous image that features a literal egg on his face.
Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection is on at the V&A Museum in South Kensington, London until January 2025.
Image credits: Photoraphers credited. Images courtesy of the V&A Museum.