Explore a gallery with the stars at Charlie Gray's inaugural exhibition at the Leica Gallery in London
The actress Emilia Clarke - best known for her portrayal of Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones(Image credit: Charlie Gray / Leica)
Leica Gallery London has announced the inaugural exhibition of Charlie Gray, showcasing 12 epic portraits illustrating the stories of actors, artists, great entertainers, and rock music royalty. The exhibition highlights work that contains his signature narrative style, which was partially born from his early love of cinema.
Gray’s work for industry giants, such as BAFTA, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, EON Productions, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair, focuses on portraiture, fashion, and candid behind-the-scenes moments of beloved stars from film and theatre.
Robert de Niro (Image credit: Charlie Gray / Leica)
Freddie Forman (Image credit: Charlie Gray / Leica)
Gray began photographing whilst at university, becoming involved in various documentary projects. He acknowledges these formative years as a true learning curve in terms of technical and people skills, which later became invaluable to his photographic career.
This was also a time when he digested photography books, specifically the work of Martin Parr and Don McCullin, among others. His first commercial assignment was for BAFTA, enabling him to encounter incredible people from the film studios and entertainment industry, leading to portrait commissions and blue-chip magazine shoots. The rest is now history after his career path was paved and his work has continued to gain gravitas since.
Jon Hamm (Image credit: Charlie Gray / Leica)
The artists Gilbert & George (Image credit: Charlie Gray / Leica)
All works in the exhibition were shot on Leica cameras including the Q, S-System, and the SL-System, which Gray cites as giving him the freedom to produce the work he always wanted due to the sublime way it captures light and the wide scope of lenses available.
Photographs in the exhibition are also available for purchase, the event will take place from the September 14 to October 29 2023 at the Leica Gallery London, 64-66 Duke Street, W1K 6JD.
For nearly two decades Sebastian's work has been published internationally. Originally specializing in Equestrianism, his visuals have been used by the leading names in the equestrian industry such as The Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), The Jockey Club, Horse & Hound, and many more for various advertising campaigns, books, and pre/post-event highlights.
He is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts, holds a Foundation Degree in Equitation Science, and is a Master of Arts in Publishing. He is a member of Nikon NPS and has been a Nikon user since the film days using a Nikon F5 and saw the digital transition with Nikon's D series cameras and is still to this day the youngest member to be elected into BEWA, The British Equestrian Writers' Association.
He is familiar with and shows great interest in street, medium, and large format photography with products by Leica, Phase One, Hasselblad, Alpa, and Sinar. Sebastian has also used many cinema cameras from the likes of Sony, RED, ARRI, and everything in between. He now spends his spare time using his trusted Leica M-E or Leica M2 shooting Street photography or general life as he sees it, usually in Black and White.
