Why you should see Elton John's collection at the Jeu de Paume

“Dakota hair”, 2004. © Ryan McGinley

This summer, Paris is taking on the air of a world capital of photography. Three major collections are simultaneously taking over the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Neuflize OBC collection), Le BAL (Wilson Centre for Photography collection), and the Jeu de Paume, where nearly 200 works from the Elton John and David Furnish collection are being unveiled. All three are worth a visit. But it is the latter that resonates most deeply. Because it is less a portrait of a collector than that of a man who, after his detox in 1991, found a new anchor in photography. Because it brings together, with rare freedom, fashion icons, portraits, narratives of gay liberation, and images of current events. And because, as these exhibitions unfold, much more than a collection emerges: a sensitive history of contemporary photography, where each image seems to have been chosen as much with the heart as with the eye.

1/ “Versace dress (back view), El Mirage, California” by Herb Ritts (1990)

It's hard to imagine that one of the world's most important private photography collections was born from a personal rebirth. Yet that's precisely the story told by this exhibition at the Jeu de Paume, "Fragile Beauty," bringing together nearly 200 works selected from the approximately 7,000 photographs belonging to Elton John and his husband, David Furnish. The exhibition, curated by Duncan Forbes, extends "The Radical Eye," presented at Tate Modern in 2007: after images from 1920 to 1950, this time the focus is on photography from 1950 to the present day, in a deliberately more focused selection, "smaller but better," according to its curator. It all began in 1991 in France. A few months after his detoxification from alcohol and cocaine, Elton John acquired his first three photographs. These initial acquisitions came from the world of fashion, which still comprises a significant portion of the collection today, including, for example, the iconic photographs of Herb Ritts. This burgeoning passion gradually replaced addiction... Guided by gallery owners and specialists, Elton John, along with David Furnish, built a collection of exceptional quality, where each print was sought after in its most pristine condition and each frame custom-designed to complement the artwork. The exhibition captures this spirit. The photographs have been taken down from the walls of their homes, where they even replaced the wallpaper, to be presented in deliberately subdued lighting, both to preserve the prints and to recreate this domestic atmosphere. As the exhibition unfolds, a vast history of contemporary photography emerges, all linked by a common thread: the representation of the body.

2/ “Untitled, 368, Fire Island Pines” by Tom Bianchi (1975-1983)

Courtesy of Fahey Klein Gallery, Los Angeles. © Tom Bianchi.

One of the central themes of the exhibition is how photography accompanies the emancipation of the gay community. Curator Duncan Forbes contrasts images from before Stonewall, named after the New York gay bar, where bodies appear alone, often confined within interiors, with those from after 1969, when the Stonewall riots marked the beginning of Gay Liberation. Gradually, the individual gives way to the collective. This evolution culminates in the photographs of Tom Bianchi taken on Fire Island, an island off the coast of New York that became a refuge for this community in the 1970s and 1980s. His images, bathed in light, show friends, couples, and bodies displayed without concealment. More than a vacation spot, Fire Island appears as a space of freedom where a chosen family is built and where homosexuality ceases to be clandestine, becoming a fully embraced identity. The works of Robert Mapplethorpe, Nan Goldin, and Gilbert & George extend this narrative. Photography thus contributes to the visibility of the American gay community and its affirmation in the public sphere.

3/ “Ike Cole, 38 years old; Los Angeles, California: $25” by Philip-Lorca diCorcia (1990-1992, chromogenic print)

Contrary to the glamorous clichés associated with Hollywood, Philip-Lorca diCorcia explores its underbelly with his acclaimed series "Hustlers." Thanks to a grant from the U.S. government, the photographer met and paid sex workers in Los Angeles before staging them in highly cinematic images . Each photograph is accompanied by a few factual details (name, age, hometown, and price charged) that serve as a reminder of the social reality behind the visual sophistication. By juxtaposing the Hollywood ideal with those whom society prefers to render invisible, diCorcia reveals another America, where the line between fiction and documentary becomes as blurred as that between celebrity and marginality.

4/ “In the Path of Fire” by Ethan Swope (2025)

Even more surprising is the prominence given to photojournalism. Elton John and David Furnish also collect news images, from civil rights marches in the United States to conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, and Syria, as well as fires, the protests following the death of George Floyd, and the attack on the Capitol. Their approach is unique: when a press photograph moves them deeply, spotted in their daily reading of the news, they contact the photographer to acquire a print. Unlike the other works in their collection, these images are not hung in their homes. They are kept as archives, with the conviction that they constitute an essential record of our time. For the couple, collecting these photographs means preserving the traces of the world's great upheavals so that future generations can understand, through them, history as it unfolds.

“Fragile Beauty. Photographs from the collection of Sir Elton John and David Furnish,” until September 24, jeudepaume.org