The public came to know John’s impressive trove of photographs, which charts the rise of the medium from 1910 onwards, through the exhibitions Chorus of Light
at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art in 2000 and The Radical Eye at London’s Tate Modern in 2016–17. Beginning 18 May 2024, more than 300 images from John and Furnish’s
collection will be unveiled at the Victoria and Albert Museum in Fragile Beauty, the institution’s largest photography exhibition to date.

‘Within the photography community, Elton’s love for photographs was an open secret for a while. He collected at the masterpiece level and was behind a lot of great
interest and collecting power during the ’90s and the 2000s,’ recalls Darius Himes, Christie’s Deputy Chairman and International Head of Photographs. In 1993, for
example, John bought Man Ray’s 1932 image Glass Tears for $193,895, then the highest price for a single photograph at auction.

The public came to know John’s impressive trove of photographs, which charts the rise of the medium from 1910 onwards, through the exhibitions Chorus of Light at
Atlanta’s High Museum of Art in 2000 and The Radical Eye at London’s Tate Modern in 2016–17. Beginning 18 May 2024, more than 300 images from John and Furnish’s
collection will be unveiled at the Victoria and Albert Museum in Fragile Beauty, the institution’s largest photography exhibition to date.

‘It’s amazing what Elton can put on the wall and get away with versus what other people can,’ says Harbin of the diversity of John’s collection, which he hung salon
style to maximise space. In addition to his 13,500-square-foot apartment, John also maintained a studio at Park Place where Harbin managed and conserved the photographs
, which are especially sensitive to light and humidity. ‘Because of how large our collection is, we have the ability to rotate photographs in the way that they should be rotated to keep the prints to a museum-quality level.’