Glamour and grit are both on show in a London exhibition of photos from Elton John’s collection

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — A new exhibition of photographs owned by Elton John opens this week at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. It includes more than 300 pieces by 140 photographers selected from the vast collection of John and his husband David Furnish. Entitles “Fragile Beauty,” the show spans the decades from 1950 to the present day. It ranges from fashion shots by Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Herb Ritts to celebrity portraits to photojournalism capturing moments from the Black civil rights movement of the 1960s to 1980s AIDS activism and the Sept. 11 attacks. Curator Duncan Forbes said the exhibition was “a really absorbing, big show about photography” that also reflected the passions of the collectors.