Leonard Freed

"There is an extraordinary beauty and at the same time an energy that pervades Leonard Freed’s work. As one of the Magnum Agency’s stars during the 1960s and ‘70s, his vision of New York is inimitable. Instead of simply taking pictures, Freed got to know communities he photographed as he worked with them over many years, and his pictures display an intimacy not often found in photojournalism; his coverage of African Americans during the era of the civil rights movement set the gold standard. This series, which documents the Harlem Beauty Pageant, may be less well-known than his pictures of street-life in New York and the huge problems which beset it during the 1960s, but they are by no means lesser images." - Michael Hoppen

The Michael Hoppen Gallery opened in 1992 and is founded on a passion for photography. They are renowned for nurturing upcoming artists and exhibiting them alongside acknowledged 20th and 21st century masters.