Light, Lens, Legend - Willie Christie

Presented at Cris Contini Contemporary on occasion of Photo London Week and in collaboration with Carola Syz Projects, this exhibition brings into focus the enduring visual language of Willie Christie, whose work as a fashion photographer, spanning over a decade, continues to resonate with striking clarity and relevance today.Emerging at a pivotal moment when fashion, music, and popular culture converged, Christie photographed a constellation of defining figures including David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Jerry Hall, and Grace Jones. His images move beyond documentation, constructing presence through a masterful use of light, colour, and composition, creating photographs that feel cinematic and charged with atmosphere.
A central element of his practice is his work for British Vogue, where he produced a significant body of editorial imagery alongside ten striking covers. Created in collaboration with Grace Coddington, then a fashion editor at the magazine and later his wife, these works introduced a new visual language defined by narrative, mood, and a refined sense of artifice.
Among the highlights of the exhibition is Christie’s iconic 1969 portrait of Mick Jagger, in which a luminous halo of light transforms the image into something mythic. Also featured are his photographs of Jerry Hall on the set of The Spy Who Loved Me at Pinewood Studios, capturing both the scale of cinematic production and the magnetic presence of the subject.
Christie’s later move into film, including projects connected to The Final Cut by Pink Floyd, further reflects the cinematic quality that defines his work. Across both still and moving image, his practice explores atmosphere, narrative, and the emotional resonance of light.
Willie Christie: Light, Lens, Legend presents a body of work that remains both timeless and influential, inviting a renewed appreciation of photography as a medium capable of shaping perception, memory, and desire.Special Openings:
Sun 17 May 1pm-6pm