Viewing Dulwich Picture Gallery, Unearthed: Photography’s Roots

Dulwich Picture Gallery has never before staged a major exhibition dedicated to photography, but it’s more than made up for it with Unearthed, a chronological showcase charting the history of the medium from the 1840s to the present day through images of nature. It considers not just the innovations of key pioneers — such as William Henry Fox Talbot, Edward Weston and the French photographer Adolphe Braun — it also looks at their legacies and influence on later generations of photographers.

It includes work of several overlooked photographers too, among them the English gardener Charles Jones and the Japanese artist Kazumasa Ogawa, who combined printmaking and traditional Japanese craft techniques to produce coloured photographs 30 years before colour film was invented.

You’ll come face to face with everything from Victorian calotypes and close-ups of plant specimens, to beguiling images by the trailblazing symbolist Imogen Cunningham. Standout exhibits include Robert Mapplethorpe’s flagrantly erotic tulips and the dazzling video triptychs of Israeli artist Ori Gersht.

Unearthed offers a chance to revel in the reviving power of nature. In these uncertain times, it’s a much-needed tonic for the soul.