Great Women Photographers is announced until 15 November at 45 Park Lane. The exhibition extends a Phaidon book into the hotel’s public spaces, which are also open to non-residents.
A book makes it possible to bring together images that their eras and uses keep apart. At 45 Park Lane in London, Great Women Photographers transposes part of this reading into the lobby and BAR 45. Dorchester Collection announces the exhibition from 16 September to 15 November 2026, curated by Ackerman Studios with Phaidon.
From the book to public spaces
The presentation accompanies the fourth volume of Phaidon’s series devoted to women in the arts. The announced selection names, among others, Nan Goldin, Tacita Dean, Cig Harvey and Marilyn Minter. An installation in the ground-floor windows extends the dialogue to other volumes in the collection.
Moving from the page to the wall changes the conditions of reading. Visitors may come across an image without having read the historical framework that situates it. The quality of the captions, the pairings proposed and the possibility of finding the book then become essential elements of the mediation.
Access matters as much as the address
The hotel specifies that the exhibition is open to people who are not staying there. A discussion with Charlotte Flint, the book’s editor, and Fiona Rogers, curator at the V&A, is also announced, with no detailed date in the text consulted. Some works will be offered for acquisition.
These different uses can coexist, provided visitors know what they are looking at: an exhibition, an editorial presentation or a work for sale. Hospitality can ease a first encounter with photography if it lets everyone look without having to become a client.
The 45 Park Lane proposal therefore deserves to be followed for its conditions of welcome and understanding. The presence of recognised names opens a door; the mediation determines what the public can take away from it.
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