The Victoria & Albert Museum, having been opened in 1852 by the King and Queen at the time, from whom it takes its name, offers the largest collection of art, sculpture, architecture and fashion in England. Currently two main exhibitions are held within the museum, alongside the two permanent collections. The first is the Quilts exhibition, which the Guardian reveals is ‘a strange, fascinating show’ and ‘already causing a stir’. Anyone with a remote interest in Quilts might enjoy checking out this website, Rag Rescue. Secondly, an exhibition on Architecture as been spread throughout the museum, which deserves not to be spoiled by being talked about. Safe to say, it is an amazing reinvention of old classics with a healthy blend of the new and minimalist, called ‘Architects Build Small Spaces’.

However, what I am always truly excited by at the V & A is not these exhibitions, which have in recent years covered a wide girth of subjects, but the photography. Often this is limited to a single gallery room 38a, but this in no way distracts from the beauty of these lone works. Each work contains a huge breadth of meaning, and speaks volumes about the culture and society in which each was taken. There are a wide range of photographic techniques too, from more modern mediums that reduce them to geometrical shapes, or use cameras specially developed to take a different type of picture, or even handmade tyre frames that illustrate the society they were made in, or collages of photos. On special exhibition now is a collection of photographs from the magazine New Society, which was merged with the New Statesman in 1988.

It would be difficult to sum up why these photography exhibitions, which change every few months, are worth seeing, and it is simplest to ask you to go and see them, and then speak up for them, having truly delighted in them.

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