Fragile Beauty: Highlights from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection at the V&A London

Image Credits: Ryan McGinley, Fragile Beauty V&A London 

By MAGGIE HORNEFF September 13, 2024

Building on the success of their 2016 modernist photography exhibition at Tate Modern, Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish return with their spectacular collection, Fragile Beauty, showcasing at the V&A in London. The exhibition comprises nine spaces, flooded with haunting yet breathtaking images, from renowned photographers of recent decades. Grouped by overarching themes of sexuality, politics, grief, and fashion, the exhibition fosters a building sense of intensity as spectators move through the block-coloured, dimly lit rooms. With supplementary texts illustrating the compelling contexts and histories behind the visual joys of the images. 

Richard Avedon, Ronald Fischer; Beekeeper, 1981, Fragile Beauty V&A London. 

At first glance, audiences are confronted with a striking portrait by Richard Avedon. After placing an ad in the American Bee Journal, Avedon discovered beekeeper Ronald Fischer. Under the instruction 'don't smile and don't move,' Avedon captured the seminal image of Fischer, his skin crawling with bees. The mesmerising image immediately underscores the exhibition's central narrative: the delicate balance between vulnerability, danger, and the pursuit of beauty. 

The exhibition begins at a gentler speed, exhibiting works such as Helmut Newton’s Elsa Peretti as Bunny, Juergen Teller’s Joan Didion and portraits of the Beatles, again shot by Avedon. Cracks of fragility emerge with the poignant portraits of an anguished Chet Baker and a never before seen photograph of Marilyn Munroe, a pop culture epitome of tragic beauty. It’s from here on that the overriding narrative of the exhibition takes shape, as spectators migrate down a visual trail of celebrity portraits imbued with a near-religious mystique. Leading into a room titled ‘Desire,' the space becomes saturated with an abundance of explicit images of the naked male body. Though criticised for bordering on fetishistic, an undeniable sense of vulnerability and intimacy is accumulated through these pictures. For artists like Robert Mappelthrope and Peter Hujar, these images became a medium to dismantle oppressive stereotypes of homosexuality during the early years of the gay rights movement and AIDS epidemic. The room reveals a desire and celebration for the male form, bringing the typically ‘hidden,’to the public realm. 

Juergen Teller Joan Didion Celine Campaign Spring Summer 2015, V&A London 

The following room adds an additional depth to the exhibition with an assemblage of news photographs chronicling a history of political and societal turmoil in America. The death of anti-war protester Jeffrey Miller in 1970, shot and killed while at a demonstration, is memorialised in a photograph by John Filo followed by Kena Batuncur’s capture of Harvey Weinstein struggling up the stairs into his 2019 trial. Notably, the room is enveloped in a profound silence from spectators gathered in a hushed contemplation dazed by Richard Drew’s The Falling Man - a capture of a man plummeting from the World Trade Centre, an image embedded in global consciousness. The room positions photography as the ultimate observation tool in the documentation of political activism, disaster and change. 

Coverage, V&A London Website, Fragile Beauty. 

Morbid undertones continue to build in the following room titled "Fragile Beauty," where themes of death, illness, and physical fragility pervade the space. Upon entering, visitors are confronted by a portrait of Warhol muse and transgender actress Candy Darling, captured by Hujar from her deathbed. On the opposite wall, Mapplethorpe’s final portrait before his death also looks back. Larry Clark’s reflections on American abjection and addiction hang on the far side of the room, featuring images such as a man with a gunshot wound and a pregnant woman shooting up. In what feels like the climax of the exhibition, Nan Goldin’s explicit Thanksgiving series covers the walls of a smaller structure in the centre of the space. Encompassing themes of joy, sex, despair, death, abuse and friendship; among many others depicted in the 149 images. A true showcase of human fragility as a source for creative inspiration. 

The final spaces decline in emotional intensity, shifting focus to more visually abstract and modern images. These works explore the creative possibilities of the camera processes, propelling images beyond their ordinary appearance and playing with the boundaries of image making. The emphasis moves from the subject to medium manipulation. A showcase of modernist pioneers; from Andreas Gursky’s expansive, digitally altered depictions of North Korean rallies to Sam Taylor-Johnson’s carefully staged, faux-candid portraits of male actors crying to a camera. Additionally, Adam Fuss’s unique silhouette portraits, captured against a golden light in water, feature John and Furnish’s two young children, Zachary and Elijah. 

Adam Fuss, Cibachrome Photograms, Zachary 2011, Elijah 2013, V&A London 

Though the curation of the exhibition has faced some light criticism for the sheer volume of works displayed, there's no denying the impressive scope of so many renowned pieces existing together in one space. As director David Frankel notes Fragile Beauty "spills out a story about style, fashion, the crippling excesses of success, the endless, head spinning allure of sexuality," 

Fragile Beauty is on view at the V&A London through May 1, 2025. WM