Latest exhibition

The John Rylands Library is opening a new exhibition in Spinningfields to mark Manchester Pride 2025 in collaboration with photographers Jon Shard and Stuart Linden Rhodes

From Monday, 18 August explore Come Out Tonight: queer 90s nightlife an exhibition capturing the energy and growth of the queer scene of the early 1990s. Displayed along The Avenue in Spinningfields, the photographs celebrate 90s queer nights in Manchester and across the country revealing a thriving, dynamic and inclusive community. 

Celebrate more queer stories by visiting The Secret Public: LGBTQ pop 1955-1985, a free exhibition at The John Rylands Library. Open Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-5pm.  

The photographs capture the queer scene of the early 1990s. These images show a thriving, dynamic and inclusive community, a world where people could express and be themselves. They document a scene growing in size and confidence with images reflecting joy, love and freedom.

Lindens’ images show nights across the country from Manchester to Wakefield, Liverpool to Birmingham, Derby to Blackpool. Jon Shard’s photographs focus on the legendary Flesh night at The Haçienda in Manchester. Monthly, and on a Wednesday, the night was a sell out and set a template for a new kind of queer night.

Jon Shard is renowned for his visually distinguished photography across advertising, sport and portraiture. His photographs of Flesh have become some of the most recognisable images of The Haçienda and have been exhibited globally. He has work in the permanent collection of The National Portrait Gallery.

Stuart Linden Rhodes was the roving reporter for All Points North and Gay Times during the early to mid-1990s, his columns for those magazines were entitled: Out & About with Linden. In November 2024, three of Stuart’s photographs were added to Manchester Art Gallery’s permanent collection.

Work by both photographers forms part of the collection at The John Rylands Library.


Explore more queer stories in The Secret Public: LGBTQ pop 1955-1985, a free exhibition at The John Rylands Library. Open Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-5pm.

Exhibition runs from 18th August – 5th October 2025

MY LATEST OASIS FANS EXHIBITION

Oasis archives exhibition lands at Kimpton Clocktower Hotel
Oasis Fans - 1994-1997 will show music fans a world of pre-dynamic pricing and online ticket sales, co-curated by the British Culture Archive

As Manchester gears up to welcome Oasis home, the city’s iconic Kimpton Clocktower Hotel has today announced a new free exhibition, offering music fans a walk down memory lane.

Open to the public from 7pm on Wednesday 2nd July, Oasis Fans - 1994-1997 is set to show a series of never-before-seen photographs by renowned photographer Jon Shard, who opens the door to a world before online sales, dynamic pricing and frantically refreshing a website to get the hottest ticket in town.

The collection of photographs, curated by the British Culture Archive, shows scenes of fans excitedly queuing up in the cold winter of 1996, hoping to get their hands on tickets for the band’s sold out shows at Manchester City’s Maine Road stadium - for as little as £17.50 per ticket.

Renowned for his visually distinctive work across a number of fields, this was Shard’s first assignment for NME - the iconic music bible that shaped generations of music journalism and culture.

Speaking fondly of life pre-online ticket sales, Shard said: “Queuing in person had its charm - I felt privileged to capture the dedication of fans willing to stay out all night and brave the cold. Getting the ticket was an event itself, almost a rite of passage for fans.”

Giving visitors a deeper insight into the sold-out shows, as well as the magic of Oasis and their music, the exhibition will also feature a Fan Wonderwall - with archive images spanning from 1994-97 from fans attending gigs, spanning from pre-smart phone gig-videos, through to their latest performances.

One Oasis fan featured in the exhibition; Leah Walker, who was successful in securing her ticket and attended one of the two sold-out Maine Road stadium shows looked back: "I was one of those kids who camped out at Maine Road to secure a ticket, and when the day of the gig finally came, it didn't disappoint. The area around the stadium, Rusholme and Moss Side was buzzing. I'm in my mid-40s now, and we have never had anything like that in music since."

David Lockhart, general manager of Kimpton Clocktower Hotel, added: “It’s a privilege to play a part in the city welcoming the Gallagher brothers home. The photographs by Jon Shard offer a glimpse into a defining moment in Manchester’s music history, and we’re proud to share this with our guests and the city.”

Oasis Fans - 1994-1997 is open to the public from 7pm on Wednesday 2nd July on the walls of Refuge, Kimpton Clocktower Hotel, until 31st August 2025.
The first 50 visitors will also receive a free limited edition zine, so they can take a piece of Oasis history home. Please head to the pop up shop on launch night (from 7pm on 2nd July) to claim - first 50 people only.

Football Retirement

3 football retirements in the past week, Jonny Evans, Fran Kirby & Mary Earps. Good luck on your next chapter
It was a pleasure working with you all

My latest exhibition in New York featured at The Museum of Sex

Great to see my work displayed in the Higher Love Exhibition at New York’s Museum of sex. 

Exploring the psycadelic roots of modern society. My Hacienda images  feature amongst a variety of prominent artists and important players within this genre.

Thanks to The museum of sex and Ariel Protek who put this wonderfully unique exhibition together.

It’s on for 6 months, so if you happen to be New York then check it out.

www.museumofsex.com/locations/new-york-city/

Here’s an introduction from the museum.

Since the acid dropping experiments of therapists and sexual revolutionaries in the 1950s and 1960, sex and psychedelics have constantly been drawn together by Anglo American and European culture, hailed as Augmenters of experience, therapeutic tools, and even erotic interlocutors.

The exhibition drawers on hidden histories and marginalised stories, oftentimes those of women, to illustrate our understanding of sexuality in the 21st-century has been transformed by the “altered states” brought about an inspired by psychedelic substances. In the wake of a major resurgence of psychedelic research, which has transformed the loosening of legal prohibitions of psychedelics and an uptake in use. The time has come to tell new stories about the psychedelic future  of sex.

Thanks to @comethroughlab for the beautiful printing. 

OPEN EYE EXHIBITION DUOVISON →

New exhibition at the Open Eye Gallery featuring images from my Hacienda collection

https://openeye.org.uk/whatson/for-your-pleasure/

“Once upon a time there were cities where squats were legal, rents affordable and old nightclubs sat empty. In these recession-hit places, kids from mixed backgrounds played and created together. Music was made, clubs were formed, boundaries were broken and great times were had. This was the UK in the early 1990s.’’ – DuoVision, guest curators. 

At a time when Section 28, a law introduced by Margaret Thatcher, made it criminal for local authorities and schools to ‘promote’ homosexuality, silencing the voices of queer people while the AIDS crisis tore through communities, queer people still danced, loved and came together to be themselves.

For this exhibition, Open Eye Gallery worked with guest curators, DuoVision (Martin Green & James Lawler). Club culture was an integral and informative part of DuoVision’s world, as Martin Green is also a DJ and ran the influential 90s club Smashing. James Lawler also avidly frequented clubs in London and the North West. In this exhibition, DuoVision wanted to celebrate their dancefloor roots by exploring memories from the community they helped to build. The show includes photography by Marc Vallée, Jon Shard, Donald Milne, David Swindells and a film by Tim Brunsden, reflecting on DuoVision’s practice, commissioned by Open Eye Gallery. 

Proudly supported by Homotopia. 

Martin Green & James Lawler, guest curators, DuoVision, said: 

The Open Eye Gallery has always offered ourselves and other marginalised creatives much needed support and advice. We are pleased to finally be collaborating on this new exhibition which explores our own personal history and connections to UK club culture through two particular nightclubs, Smashing and Flesh at The Hacienda. In recent years Queer culture has become seen as a relevant subject for examination within gallery spaces, and this exhibition explores its roots as it manifested and developed on the dancefloor.

 

Adrian Friedli, Interim Executive Director, Homotopia, said: 

With this exhibition, DuoVision takes the celebration of North West music from the 80s into the 90s. Having partnered with the fantastic DuoVision on The Holly Johnson Story, currently on display at Museum of Liverpool until 27th July 2025, Homotopia is delighted to support our long-term collaborators in this exciting and important project. An amazing show, and a significant event in marking the legacy of North West club and Queer culture.

 

Bronwyn Andrews, exhibition assistant curator and creative producer, Open Eye Gallery, said:

For Your Pleasure relishes queer club culture and its specific mode of existence as a refuge for queer expression. The queer club night’s haven-like quality – both in the 90s and today – allows for freedom of being, movement and connection in a way the daytime world could never. 

Martin and James of DuoVision are unique curators in that they are part of the community their practice represents. Building a network of artists, musicians, and designers over 30+ years, they have played no small role in creating safe, creative spaces for queer people to come together and express themselves.

 

Duovision comprises of Martin Green & James Lawler. Together since 2012, they have curated over 40 exhibitions highlighting undervalued artists, photographers and designers.They have brought many multimedia artists into the spotlight – Roxana Halls, Duggie Fields, Corline Coon – as well as worked with old friends Derek Jarman, Marc Almond, Holly Johnson and Jarvis Cocker. 

Martin & James work extensively with a community of LGBTQIA+ individuals built from close relationships, nurtured for over 30+ years. They curate from within and have created a culture which nurtures talent and vibrant self expression. Music, performance and discussion are also integral to DuoVision, with exhibition soundtracks produced by Marc Almond and Jarvis Cocker and performances by Patrick Wolf and Andrew Logan.

Image by Jon Shard

Johnny Marr/ The Healers

Great to see my photos used in the special edition release of the 2003 album Boomslang.

One of the coolest looking bands I’ve photographed 🙂

NME ARCHIVE


The NME Archive is truly a treasure trove! 

Today I’m delving into thousands of iconic photographs, hoping to reconnect with some of my old photographic commissions from back in the nineties.

It's an amazing archive containing works by globally acclaimed music photographers, making it arguably one of the most important music archives in the world.

It's going to be quite a mission sifting through so many images! 🙂

Jon

The Great John Cale,

Photographed at the Natural History Museum for the cover of his HoboSapiens album, This is one of my most memorable music shoots. The shoot was beautifully art directed and designed by my good friend Rick Myers, with John Cale patiently posing for the camera.

This is the start of my new project, archiving my entire music portfolio from the beginning of my career. With a mass collection of film and contact sheets to sift through, this promises to be a nostalgic journey down memory lane.

Latest shoot with Mo Salah for Pepsi