British photogtrapher Neil Libbert’s has been working as a street photographer and photojournalist for nearly 60 years and this exhibition at Michael Hoppen Gallery in London focuses on key works made during his earlier career. It is the first recent opportunity to explore the full range of Libbert’s talents and the show includes a number of previously unseen prints such as West Indian Arrivals, Waterloo Station, 1961 or Outside the Black-E Arts Centre, Liverpool, 1973. Libbert’s self-effacing charm and modesty have always allowed him to get close to his subjects such as children enthralled in the cinema in Salford in the 1950s or those at the heart of the tension in Harlem during the race riots of the mid-1960s.
Libbert travelled widely during the 1950s and 60s, often working on assignment for The Guardian newspaper, and the photographs he made capture a radically changing world with huge compassion – ranging from the poverty of post-war Manchester to the energy of New York in the late 60s. The majority of works in the exhibition will be vintage prints, made by Libbert at the time that they were taken – these have a particularly rich surface and are often unique.
Neil Libbert
June 8 to July 21, 2017
Michael Hoppen Gallery
3 Jubilee Pl, Chelsea
London SW3 3TD
United Kingdom
