Drag Daughters

A Solo Exhibition

by Michelle Sank

7th May 2026 - July 7th 2026

at Het Zuid-Afrikahuis | Keizersgracht 141-C | 1015 CK, Amsterdam

What began as a chance encounter with a stranger on Cape Town’s Promenade, Drag Daughters by Michelle Sank developed into a powerful body of work portraying some of the city’s most exquisite drag queens. The series follows six young drag queens who have grown up in townships and, despite facing rejection or having to hide their identities in the past, are now becoming more accepted, striving to make a difference within the communities they grew up in.

Included in the exhibition are an striking collection of portraits that move beyond the conventional depiction of drag in pageants or nightclub performances. Removed from theatrical settings, and stripped of spectacle, Michelle Sank’s photographs reveal the poised presence, pride and individuality of each of her subjects. At the same time, the images radiate performance and allure, reflecting the vibrant personalities of the drag queens dressed in breathtaking costumes against the neutral background of a hotel lobby or the streets of their township neighbourhood.

In a country still navigating the legacies of apartheid alongside ongoing social challenges, these images speak powerfully of visibility and change. Drag Daughters is a testament to the dynamic and evolving drag scene in South Africa, inviting us to appreciate and celebrate this vibrant facet of society.

“I think [because of] the trauma that South Africans have gone through, there is now a sense of individuality and expression … and people are out there, people are open. Obviously, there are real issues still, but my work there has been acelebration of what is happening…people are empowered there and the way they manifest that is really interesting”

- Michelle Sank

About Michelle Sank

Michelle Sank grew up during apartheid as the child of immigrant parents, a background that informs her interest in sub-cultures and the exploration of contemporary social issues and challenges. Her crafted portraits meld place and person creating sociological, visual and psychological landscapes and narratives. Known for her work on youth culture, her practice has expanded into long term projects documenting communities and cultures in depth.

Sank has exhibited and published internationally, including the Netherlands, USA, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Hong Kong, and South Africa. Her work is held in major public and private collections worldwide. She has received numerous awards, including recognition from the Taylor Wessing Prize, The Julia Margaret Cameron awards, the Sony World Photography Awards (Portraiture, 2024), and the Royal Photographic Society, awarding her an Honorary Fellowship.

About Het Zuid-Afrikahuis

Het Zuid-Afrikahuis is an international knowledge institute focusing on the language, culture, and history of South Africa. Its building on the Keizersgracht houses the largest collection of South African (professional) literature in Europe. The collection consists of a library, archive, and image bank. In addition to managing these collections, ZAH organizes events, exhibitions, language courses, and maintains a loyal reading group. Het Zuid-Afrikahuis Foundation funds a chair in South African literature, culture, and history, a thesis prize, manages a scholarship fund, and organizes study trips as part of the Youth Project.

Artist Talk & Guided Tour

The exhibition opening event will take place on 7 May 2026 between 16:30 and 18:30 at Het Zuid-Afrikahuis, Amsterdam. Attendees are invited to join a lecture and guided tour with the artist Michelle Sank, followed by a reception.

Exhibition Details

Venue: Het Zuid-Afrikahuis, Keizersgracht 141-C, 1015 CK Amsterdam
Opening Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday | 10:00 – 16:00
Admission: Free

For press inquiries, interviews and event information, please contact Eszti Bakos at eszti.bakos@elliott.gallery.

Opening Reception:

Saturday 11th April 2026

from 17.00 to 19.30

at Elliott Gallery | Tussen de Bogen 91 | Amsterdam

Join us to celebrate with the Artists present!

The Travellers by Birte Kaufmann

German photographer Birte Kaufmann is based in Cologne, Germany, documents themes of identity and social marginalization through her empathetic portrait and documentary photography.

The Travellers (2011–ongoing) gives insight into the everyday life of Ireland's largest minority group, now looking for a new identity within 21st-century Western European society. The travellers live in a kind of parallel world to which outsiders have little access. Over time, and through living alongside one large family, Birte gained their trust, and with it, a rare closeness to their everyday life.

What We Choose Not to See by Naïma El Kadi

Moroccan born photographer Naima El Kadi is based in Antwerp, Belgium. Through analogue experiments and field research, she develops a visual language where time, material, and memory come together.

What We Choose Not to See focuses on former landfill sites in Flanders, Belgium. Naima develops analogue photographs using polluted water collected from these sites — chemical residues react directly with the photographic emulsion, leaving visible marks on the images. The pollution becomes part of the image-making process, not as an illustration, but as a physical presence.

Take Notice by Olivier Tuinier

Olivier Tuinier is an Amsterdam-born and based photographer focused on documentary and street photography, with a soft spot for faded glory.

Take Notice is an ongoing series in which Olivier documents small, often overlooked scenes encountered in the streets. Drawn to the unspectacular and the unfiltered, the series reflects the real not by documenting dramatic events or obvious beauty, but by highlighting the subtle and honest poetry found in ordinary spaces. In a visually saturated world, Take Notice is, above all, an invitation to pause and really look.

Join us for the opening of the exhibition and meet our incredible winners! The exhibition will be on view from 11th April until 16th May.

We are open by appointment.

Limited edition and unique polaroid prints are available to purchase.

Elliott Gallery is proud to present:

Miles and Miles of Texas & Honky Tonk by Henry Horenstein

In Honky Tonk and Miles and Miles of Texas, Henry Horenstein takes us on a journey through the heart of American music and culture—capturing not just what it looked like, but what it felt like to be there.

Honky Tonk offers a candid, affectionate glimpse into the golden age of country music in the 1970s, where legends and locals shared the stage in small-town bars, music parks, and iconic venues. With warmth and unflinching detail, Horenstein preserves the grit, glamour, and sincerity of a scene built on shared songs and smoky dance floors.

That same spirit—equal parts myth and memory—carries into Miles and Miles of Texas, a later body of work that retraces the cultural and musical echoes of the American South, with Texas as its beating heart. Combining roadside Americana, personal reflection, and a deep appreciation for music history, Horenstein captures the enduring character of a place where honky tonk still lives on, reshaped but recognisable.

Viewed side by side, these series trace a lineage of American identity through music, memory, and place. Horenstein’s lens remains constant: warm, direct, and tuned into the rhythms that make a culture hum.

Elliott Gallery is excited to present:

Indifferent West

An Exhibition and Forthcoming Book
by Daniel Mirer

Indifferent West is a new solo exhibition and forthcoming book launch by Artist-Photographer Daniel Mirer on September 27, 2025. Offering a powerful reflection on today's pressing socio-political issues; Mirer’s visually arresting photographic work is a critical exploration of American history, identity, and environmental crisis through the mythic American West.

Indifferent West is a salient visual investigation into the mythology, commercialisation and environmental disruption of the Western landscape. The exhibition features a selection of Mirer’s meticulously composed, vivid photographs spanning over 30 years, capturing the strange beauty and haunting irony of a landscape defined more by fantasy than fact. Mirer's forthcoming book of the same title, showcasing 108 photographs, launches in conjunction with the show at Elliott Gallery.

Drawn from decades of road trips across the American Southwest, Mirer’s jarring images aim to both play into and subtly disrupt our collective cultural memory of the mythic American Frontier. A tourist himself, he documents desertscapes and roadside attractions so familiar from countless Hollywood Western movies, while simultaneously exposing their deeper contradictions: romanticised ruins, hyperreal facades, and ironic representations of water politics occupying the space. In Indifferent West, cowboy legends clash with Native histories, kitsch collides with the climate crisis, and remnants of settler colonial fantasies are rebranded for tourist consumption.

Included in the exhibition are bold and brightly coloured photographs that present stark juxtapositions laced with a dark sense of humor to highlight the absurdity of American myth-making alongside the ever-so-pressing issues of water politics and environmental devastation. Shot in square format, and so rejecting traditional landscape conventions, these breath-taking images at first glance reveal the sweeping beauty of vast landscapes. However, on closer inspection they uncover tattered tourist sites, rusting billboards, flooded parking lots, and abandoned swimming pools dotting the historical American Frontier.

Indifferent West is a reflection on the American psyche and its uneasy relationship with history, land, and identity. The title itself points to a deeper “indifference”: not only of the land to its own history, but of a society complicit in sustaining romanticised myths while overlooking the economic, human, and environmental exploitation beneath them. Through his allusive photographs, Mirer confronts a nation entangled in its own mythology and urges viewers to reckon with their complicity in the ongoing disruption of the landscape.

The exhibition opening event and book launch will take place on 27 September, 2025 at Elliott Gallery, Amsterdam. Attendees are invited to join the Artist for a book signing, an evening of conversation, and a reception celebrating the exhibition. 

The exhibition runs from September 27, 2025 until January 17, 2026.

For press inquiries, interviews, event information and review copies of the book, please contact us at info@elliott.gallery

Elliott Gallery is excited to present:

Streets In, Studios Out!

Fashion Photography by Norman Parkinson

"Streets in, Studios out!" explores the transformative career of trailblazing British photographer Norman Parkinson (1913-1990), whose innovative approach revolutionised editorial and fashion photography, shaping the way we see and appreciate style today. Spanning seven decades, Parkinson's work was instrumental in transitioning fashion imagery from rigid, posed studio shots to dynamic and immersive storytelling. His pioneering vision continues to shape contemporary editorial aesthetics, solidifying his legacy as one of the most influential figures in 20th-century fashion photography.

Famous for his iconic sense of style and glamour, Parkinson’s unexpected and unique approach has redefined the genre. His elegant yet approachable style, paired with his sharp wit apparent in some of his work, brought a freshness to the sometimes staid genres of fashion and portrait photography. Moving away from the formality of earlier photographic styles, Parkinson embraced movement, spontaneity, and natural settings. With striking use of compositions, a keen eye for talent, and an innate ability to capture the spirit of the times, Norman Parkinson’s work graced the pages of magazines like Vogue, Life, Harper’s Bazaar, Queen and Town & Country, leaving an enduring mark on the industry. 

This exhibition traces Norman Parkinson’s evolution as a fashion photographer, guiding viewers through his life-long career. “Streets in, Studios out!” highlights Parkinson’s continuously evolving approach to capturing fashion, from breaking free of studio constraints to developing a narrative-driven style and his innovative use of colour and composition. Featuring portraits of the era’s most iconic models and celebrities, like Apollonia van Ravenstein, Jerry Hall, Audrey Hepburn, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Jane Birkin, alongside a number of previously unseen images, the show stands as a testament to a legacy defined by transformation and an eccentric vision in fashion imagery. 

Beginning his career as an apprentice to court photographers, then opening his own studio in London, Parkinson had his breakthrough in 1935 when Harper’s Bazaar editor Joyce Reynolds commissioned his first fashion shoot. An assignment that marked the beginning of a long-standing collaboration with the magazine and the launch of his fashion photography career. Working for Harper’s Bazaar and The Bystander in his early career, Parkinson rejected the formal constraints of traditional studio photography. Instead, inspired by contemporaries such as photojournalist-turned-fashion photographer Martin Munkácsi, Parkinson championed outdoor settings, movement, and natural light, capturing his models in action shots. 

A year after leaving Harper’s Bazaar, Parkinson joined British Vogue in 1941, documenting what Vogue art director John Parsons called “the rustic elegancies of England.” By the late 1940s, he moved to New York to work with American Vogue, being drawn to its vibrant studios and increasingly colourful pages. “I scanned the plush pages of American Vogue and Harper’s; beautifully lit and reproduced full pages were appearing in every issue in ‘glorious colour […]” told Parkinson in his autobiography, Lifework. As fashion photography shifted from rigid studio shots to a dynamic, photojournalistic style, Parkinson played a key role in this transformation. His increasing use of colour photography, which he called “largely magic”, paved the way for the youthful energy of the Swinging Sixties. With a filmic approach to storytelling, his work blended glamour with spontaneity, transporting viewers to beautiful locations worldwide. 

In the 1960s, Parkinson became Associate Editor and Contributing Photographer at the newly re-launched Queen magazine after leaving Vogue in 1959. Aimed at the emerging youth market, Queen was at the forefront of the Swinging Sixties, and Parkinson, now in his late forties, was perfectly positioned to capture the era’s cultural revolution. His covers and editorials featured rising stars like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, while his keen eye for talent helped launch models such as Celia Hammond.

After returning to Vogue in the mid-1960s, Parkinson continued to redefine fashion photography throughout the 1970s. Taking models to tropical locations like the Seychelles, Jamaica, and Barbados and using exclusively colour photography, he produced some of his most iconic images. Notable trips included his travels to the Soviet Union and Jamaica with Jerry Hall and to the Seychelles and Barbados with Apollonia van Ravenstein for British Vogue. A champion of individuality throughout his career, Parkinson’s portraits of many of the greatest fashion icons of the 20th century emphasised personality, shaping a new vision of expressive, unconventional fashion.

In the 1980s, Parkinson joined Town & Country, working with editor-in-chief Frank Zachary to document the glamorous world of international high society at home or in vibrant locations from Sri Lanka to the Yucatán.

Norman Parkinson passed away while on location for a Town & Country shoot in Malaysia. 

Throughout his career, Parkinson continuously reinvented both himself and the industry producing a legacy that ranges from his images pioneering action realism in the 1930s to the increasingly colourful shots of the Swinging Sixties and the lavish destination shoots of the 1970s and 1980s. His work for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Queen and Town & Country set new editorial standards, blending elegance with adventure and wit. By placing fashion within cultural moments, he made high fashion both aspirational and accessible. His mastery of composition, colour, and setting ensured his lasting influence on modern fashion photography, shaping the aesthetics of magazines for generations to come.

The exhibition will be on view from 10th May to August 2025.

Elliott Gallery is excited to present:

Ballade by Michelle Sank

“Ballade is a poetic homage to my birthplace, Cape Town. My strongest memories are of the Sea Point Promenade in Cape Town and its accompanying Pavilion swimming pool where I frequented the long walkway and its bordering vast grass areas through all of my formative years. I was born there, and my recall is one of tableaus transpiring through play, encounters and festivities. The pool, the walkway, the beaches and the green areas continue to serve as stage sets within which diverse performances unfolded.” -- M. Sank

On view from 8th February to 12th April 2025.

REVISITING HERITAGE: Multiple award-winning photographer Michelle Sank pays homage to South Africa’s flourishing post-Apartheid society upon returning to her birthplace, Cape Town

Michelle Sank’s Ballade series documents the vibrant fabric of Cape Town’s emblematic Sea Point Promenade, offering an exploration and celebration of its rich socio-economic, racial, and gender diversity. Through her deeply evocative portraiture, Sank highlights the fundamental interplay of identity, place, and community while painting a compelling narrative of the Promenade’s not only historical, but autobiographical significance.

As one of Cape Town’s popular public spaces, Sea Point Promenade and the adjacent Pavilion Pool serve as a unifying backdrop that connects Sank’s individual subjects to space, community and culture. Sea Point’s rich history and evolving social fabric, from a racially segregated urban area during apartheid to a vibrant, multicultural neighbourhood in the post-apartheid era, have transformed the space into a central meeting point for both residents and visitors alike. As Sank reflects; “For many, [the Promenade] with the Pavilion Pool is their sanctum, the public space they don’t have in private due to cramped living conditions or general pressures and continued life challenges in S.A”

Beyond its historical significance the Promenade also holds autobiographical importance for Michelle Sank. Having grown up in Cape Town in an immigrant community during Apartheid, she left after completing her studies, only to return decades later. Through her work, Michelle pays tribute to South Africa’s post-apartheid social diversity, present in Sea Point as well.

Michelle Sank’s photography is often centred around topics of socio-economic diversity, and the exploration of the pressures and hopes of young people living in suburban and coastal towns. In Ballade, just like in her other projects, Sank’s deeply personal and empathetic approach to her subjects results in an intimate portrayal of each individual she photographed. Through this lens, the images simultaneously capture the inner Self of the subjects and preserve the deep connection between them and their environment, highlighting the reciprocal relationship they share.

Moreover, Sank’s unique non-judgemental and inquisitive gaze is apparent in Ballade’s portraiture. The photographs in this exhibition focus on the young visitors and residents of the Promenade, capturing a spectrum of raw human emotions – from awkwardness to confidence, vulnerability to strengths, and the love and connection shared within the groups portrayed. To achieve this, Sank places great importance on building a trusted relationship with her subjects and creating a safe environment where they can fully express themselves, both on and off camera.

Michelle’s deep respect for her heritage and her unwavering optimism is at the heart of her work. Ballade vividly captures a flourishing community, showcasing South Africa’s rich cultural landscape and dynamic spirit.

Elliott Gallery is excited to present:

John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins

A Revolution Tale by the King of the Underground

A retrospective exhibition of the legendary counterculture figure of London in the 1960s. For the first time, we are excited to showcase vintage and signed prints by Hoppy, made available exclusively at Elliott Gallery.

“We have to seize the moment, think for ourselves, question authority and make a better world.”

– John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins

Born in England in 1937, John Hopkins, better known as ‘Hoppy’, was one of the best-known counterculture figures in London during the 60s, not just as a photographer and journalist, but also as a political activist.

Hoppy graduated from Cambridge University in 1958 with a Master’s in Physics. He briefly worked for the Atomic Energy Authority, but lost his security clearance following a jaunt to Moscow for a communist youth festival and peace mission, when he was arrested by the KGB. He resigned and turned to Photography in 1960.

Hoppy embodied the world of 60s: a new emerging world of youth culture, alongside a world of social change and freedom. Through his insightful, raw and beautiful photos he documented this incredible time of change. In a relatively short period of time, Hoppy’s diverse images of British youth and subcultures of the 60s reached an iconic status.

When the 60s began, he was young, inquisitive, energized and in London. He was working as a news photographer for the Sunday Times as well as for Melody Maker and Peace News. This meant that he was taking pictures of everything from visiting Jazz and Blues Artists, through CND’s Easter marches from Aldermaston, to The Rolling Stones and The Beatles on their first wave of stardom, with a few fashion models in between who wanted to build up their portfolios.

Hoppy recorded the mood of the fast-changing decade and documented many genres - peace marches, poetry readings with a naked Allen Ginsberg and photographed twentieth century heroes such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. In stark contrast and most poignantly Hoppy also shot the seedier side of London: grubby tattoo parlours, child poverty, bikers cafes, prostitutes, fetishists and sex workers in their small bed-sits. These images have a lasting humility which is rarely seen.

In 1965 he sets up Notting Hill Free School – a major factor in bringing together organisational players in Notting Hill Carnival. He co-founded Britain's first underground newspaper, the 'International Times’ (the forerunner of Time Out Magazine), co-established a publishing company, promoted Pink Floyd and set up London's first all-night psychedelic club, the UFO, where Jimi Hendrix would play. Around this time Hoppy gathers together names, addresses and telephone numbers of 100 ‘movers and shakers’ in London and circulates them to each other. This is later seen as beginning what would become UK counterculture.

By June 1967, Britain’s fertile and diverse counterculture took much of its inspiration from Hoppy - he was the closest thing the movement ever had to a leader and became known as the ‘King of the Underground’. Revolutions are, almost by definition, factional, but during those golden years, the working-class anarchists, vaguely aristocratic bohemians, musicians, crusaders, poets and dropouts were united in their respect and affection for Hoppy.

His status as a leader of this amorphous movement had led to his downfall - Hoppy’s flat was raided, a small amount of hash was found, leading to his arrest and a prison sentence of nine months.

At his trial, he attacked the prohibition of drugs and, having been branded a “pest to society” by the judge, was handed a ludicrously vindictive jail term in Wormwood Scrubs Prison. Outrage at the sentence inspired a “Free Hoppy March” to Trafalgar Square, ubiquitous graffiti and a full-page protest in the Times, paid for by Paul McCartney, calling for legalisation of marijuana, signed by many illustrious names – including all four Beatles. Despite being a major cause célèbre, it didn’t get a day knocked off Hoppy’s sentence.

“I served six months in the Scrubs. Mick and Keith were also there after their drug bust. I said hello, but they were only there for two or three days. They had friends in all the right places!”

— Hoppy

At the end of the 60s, Hoppy turned to video as an art form and educational tool, researching the social uses of video for UNESCO, the Arts Council etc. Later on, he worked as a technical journalist, co-authored distance-learning video training courses, explored macro photography of plants, co-authored academic papers and just never stopped being cool.

Elliott Gallery is excited to present the winning series of our Open Call for Exhibition Proposals:

The exhibition opens on Saturday 24th August 2024, from 17.30 to 19.30, in presence of the Artists. On view until 21st September.

A Man and His Horse by Lieke Zweekhorst

Lieke Zweekhorst, an emerging contemporary photographer based in Delft, The Netherlands, delves into the profound connection between a man and his horse in this beautiful series created in Gambia.

A Man and His Horse was inspired by a spontaneous encounter on the Gambian coast, where Lieke observed a man named Roony swimming in the sea with his horse, Marischa. Struck by their unique bond, she initiated a conversation with Roony and learned about their daily lives, where they share a deep relationship based on trust and mutual respect. This poetic series captures the essence of their connection, inviting viewers to focus on the intimate relationship between the two beings without the distraction of their socioeconomic conditions.

Through intimate portraits and thoughtful compositions, Lieke’s images evoke a sense of both alienation and connection, reflecting her genuine curiosity and engagement with the world around her.

Nothing Can Stay Gold by Matthew Ludak

Matthew Ludak, an emerging photographer based in the United States, delves into the intricacies of human relationships and societal structures through his powerful imagery. His background in journalism and documentary photography informs his work, providing a unique perspective on contemporary issues.

Nothing Can Stay Gold is a documentary photography project that takes a closer look at how economic globalization has left its mark on former industrial cities and struggling small towns across America.

Inspired in part by Matthew’s family history of living and working in a small mining town in Western Pennsylvania, this project delves deep into the intricate tapestry of economic desperation, resilience, beauty, and transformation that defines these often-overlooked corners of society. Additionally, the project aims to draw attention to the environmental impact wrought by the steel and coal industries, examining the lasting consequences on the landscapes and communities that once thrived alongside these industrial giants. The protagonists of the project are the small towns and rural communities that once hummed on the pulse of factories, mills, and mining. Nothing Gold Can Stay examines the interplay between economic shifts and the lives of those who have weathered the storms of change. At the heart of this work lies an exploration of the fleeting nature of beauty and the unwavering resilience of individuals in the face of adversity. The title itself, borrowed from Robert Frost's poem, encapsulates the essence of impermanence that underpins each photograph. Image by image, the project seeks to capture the timeless essence of these communities, revealing a quiet beauty in the still moments of everyday life.

Streets once bustling with life now stand deserted, buildings once humming with activity now echo with silence, and rusty cars become relics of a vanished time. The photographs serve as an ode to the symbiotic relationship between physical space, culture, and history, offering viewers a glimpse into what make these places unique. By focusing on the present state of neglected areas, we are reminded of their once idealised pasts. The worn-out parking lots, forgotten homes, empty storefronts, and abandoned factories stand as symbols of an America that has evolved over time. Ultimately, this project serves as a reminder that within the ruins of the past lie seeds of renewal and growth. Nothing Gold Can Stay implores us to cherish the moments of quiet beauty that remain amidst the march of progress, and to honor the resilience of those who have faced adversity with unwavering grace.

Elliott Gallery presents the latest body of work by British photographer Jason Oddy:

Imagem Secundária

Oscar Niemeyer and the Ghosts of Modernism

Elliott Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Jason Oddy, his first in Amsterdam for almost a decade. In this new body of work the British photographer continues his investigations of uncommon places such as the Pentagon and ex-Soviet sanatoria, by lifting the veil of the Brasilia home of legendary modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer.

Unlike almost every other of Niemeyer’s 600-plus buildings, the house he designed for himself while helping build Brazil’s new capital looks to the past rather than the future. Its clay-tiled roof and long south-east facing verandah, make Casa Niemeyer seem like nothing so much as a typical Brazilian farmhouse. Oddy encountered it on the eve of an exhibition of his own work there. When he arrived the place had been shuttered for 20 years. Apart from a few rudimentary pre-show preparations, the architect’s onetime home appeared largely untouched.

“I was particularly interested in how Niemeyer himself might have occupied the house. As I wandered around I started to ask myself what sort of imprint this legend of modernism might have left behind; in the built-in cupboards that lined the corridors and bedrooms; in the collection of his favourite Thonet chairs; in the asymmetric swimming pool that snakes through the garden like a broken-off fragment of his nearby futuristic city; even in the salmon-pink bath. 

[…] I came across an article describing how a few months prior to my exhibition in Brasilia the then President of Brazil Michel Temer had moved out of the Niemeyer designed Palácio da Alvorada, the head of state’s official residence. Apparently he no longer wanted to live there because he believed the Alvorada was haunted. I began thinking about ghosts, and in particular the ghosts – however improbable – of modernism. I wondered if they too might have been lurking somewhere in Casa Niemeyer. And whether the photographs I’d taken there might provide some sort of clue as to their existence.

- Jason Oddy, wallpaper*

While working on Imagem Secundária Oddy started perceiving these images almost as phantasmagoric relics. Ones which if turned around and viewed in a certain way might give up their secrets.

“By transforming modernism’s timeworn concrete trope into something more diaphanous, might it be possible to see past the apparent world to the ghosts of recent history? Not to then flee from them as Temer did, but rather to acknowledge them, and attempt to understand whatever it was – warning, admonition or promise – they might be trying to impart.”

Alongside the work from Casa Niemeyer, Elliott Gallery will show Spectre, a single large-scale photograph made at Niemeyer’s French Communist Party Headquarters in Paris, where Oddy also showed his series on Niemeyer’s Algerian period. Like a delirious ‘mise en abyme’, the exhibition Imagem Secundária appears as the final reflection in a vertiginous hall of mirrors.

"Making portraits of people you are in awe of, people like Anthony Burgess and James Brown, Robert Altman... There was something, like an energy from doing that sort of work."

– David Corio

Elliott Gallery is thrilled to host ‘Framing the Beat’, a retrospective exhibition of Music Photography by David Corio, opening in October 2023.

From Hip-Hop to Punk Rock and from powerful concert shots to intimate portraits, David has captured some of the most influential and iconic musicians of the last forty five years. Public Enemy, Nina Simone, Bob Marley, B.B. King, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, The Cure, Run DMC, Grace Jones… just to name a few! His personal notes of each shoot offer a brilliant and deep insight of his subjects and his experience with them as well.

Initially as a freelance photographer, David started his career in the early days of the Punk Rock movement in London. In those early days, he would go to gigs around the city taking photos, which he would then have to turn around and print for the next morning. Soon enough, his extraordinary talent and skill caught the attention of publications and media, ultimately leading him to work as a commissioned photographer.

His work is featured on more than 500 record sleeves and is published in various magazines and newspapers. NME, The Face, Time Out, Black Echoes, the Daily Telegraph, New York Times, Rolling Stone and Mojo are only some of them. 

“I first started taking photographs probably when I was 5 years old. I remember seeing my granddad printing in a dark room he built under the stairs at his house. He was just doing contact prints, but there was something really exciting about seeing these little 2-inch square prints develop. And that hasn’t left me... The whole getting into a dark room is still something exciting, about seeing a print appear – particularly if it comes out well! That can be really exhilarating!”

– David Corio

Elliott Gallery is excited to announce the exhibition of living photography legend, Henry Horenstein. Focusing on two impressive, separate series of his portfolio, SHOW + SPEEDWAY 72, we aim to offer a glimpse into his distinctive and extraordinary body of work.

American photographer, teacher and author Henry Horenstein describes himself as a documentary photographer, focusing mainly on fringe, working-class and under-recognised communities. Exploring subjects of heritage and storytelling, he manages to offer intimate and exciting insights into different places and eras, such as the race car drivers of the 70s and modern burlesque performers of New Orleans.

In SPEEDWAY 72, Horenstein dutifully records and preserves the world in a small-town of New England in 1972. Inspired by the great chroniclers of the oddities of urban life, Brassai and Weegee, Horenstein documents the old, beat-up cars customised for racing, the nostalgic styles of the car drivers and their loyal fans.

In opposition to the rough and rusty portraits of the SPEEDWAY 72, Henry explores the neo-burlesque movement of the early 2000’s in his SHOW series. Starting in New Orleans, he experimented shooting legends like Dita Von Teese and Catherine D’Lish and gradually he dived deeply into the burlesque culture. To Henry, modern burlesque performers embody the traits of true artists – creativity, passion and determination to fulfil their vision of the world in song, dance, humour and narrative. They are different from everyone else, and they proudly show it. Living on the margins, the best of today’s burlesque artists – as well as drag, fetish and sideshow performers, have a signature vision, strong message and execution.