Elton John and David Furnish's photography collection goes on view at Jeu de Paume

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Ike Cole, 38 years old; Los Angeles, California: $25, 1990-1992. Chromogenic print © Philip-Lorca diCorcia Courtesy de l’artiste et David Zwirner.

PARIS.— Sir Elton John began collecting photography in 1991. Today, with over 7,000 images, the private collection he shares with David Furnish is considered one of the largest in the world. Renowned for its exceptional quality, scope, and remarkable depth, the collection spans the 20th and 21st centuries, and includes many works considered pivotal in the history of photography.

Artdaily Recommended · Paid Link

Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection

A major photography volume from one of the world’s leading private collections

A beautifully illustrated book exploring modern and contemporary photography through works collected by Sir Elton John and David Furnish.

See it on Amazon →

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Produced by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, the exhibition showcases over 300 prints covering the period from 1950 to the present day, celebrating the work of over 90 international photographers. The Paris show at the Jeu de Paume offers a selection of images that tell the story of modern and contemporary photography, including work by Robert Mapplethorpe, Herb Ritts, Nan Goldin, Diane Arbus, William Klein, Ryan McGinley, Ai Weiwei, Irving Penn, and Richard Avedon.

Marking over thirty years of collecting, Fragile Beauty celebrates Sir Elton John and David Furnish’s passion for photography, reflecting their personal taste and unique eye as collectors. Across five thematic sections, the exhibition explores themes such as desire, celebrity, fashion, reportage, and affirmation of identity.

“Like when you write a song, when you take a photograph there’s a bit of luck and happenstance in it – something happens at the right moment and you have to have the intelligence to click on it.” --- Sir Elton John

From the exhibition catalogue, Fragile Beauty, Jeu de Paume / 5 Continents Editions, co-publication, 2026

Fashion figures prominently in the show, as both Sir Elton John’s initial inspiration to collect photography, and a long-held passion of David Furnish. The theme is explored through emblematic works including fashion photographs by Herb Ritts, Horst P. Horst, and Irving Penn — the first photographer whose work John and Furnish began seriously collecting.

The show also features portraits of some of the music and film greats of the last seventy years. From stars of the silver screen to musicians and renowned artists, these international icons have long intrigued Sir Elton John and David Furnish. Among them, portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Doris Day, Elvis Presley, Miles Davis, and Chet Baker illustrate the couple’s fascination for artists whose lives and works marked contemporary culture.

The exhibition showcases the couple’s interest in desire as well, particularly through images of the male body. This section also includes iconic works devoted to gay liberation, such as Sunil Gupta’s series Christopher Street and William Klein’s Act Up photographs. With a fondness for queer or queer-identifying artists, John and Furnish have amassed a significant number of photos by George Platt Lynes, Peter Hujar, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Ryan McGinley.

This commitment to diverse perspectives and identities is one of the defining features of their collection.

The section entitled “Fragile Beauty” celebrates the work of Nan Goldin and Robert Mapplethorpe, both greatly admired by Sir Elton John and David Furnish. The highlight here is Goldin’s Thanksgiving work, a shrine to non-conformity composed of 149 Cibachrome prints exhibited floor-to-ceiling. Spanning from 1973 to 1999, the series offers a narrative of rare intensity, capturing intimate moments in the artist’s life in Boston and New York City among friends and lovers – many of whom are now deceased.

Other photos in the section speak to human vulnerability and the creativity of transgression, such as the work of Philip-Lorca diCorcia, who staged portraits of young prostitutes on the mean streets of Los Angeles in the early 1990s for his series Hustlers, one of Elton John’s favourites.

The exhibition gets much of its momentum from artists who fought sexual oppression, racism or other forms of persecution, through the articulation of complex and affirmed identities.

The themes of struggle and liberation continue in the section entitled “Reportage,” presenting iconic images of key moments in contemporary history: the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and the events of September 11, 2001. Sir Elton John and David Furnish’s passion for photojournalism shows no sign of waning. They continue to seek out press photos, and new acquisitions since the V&A exhibition will be on display for the first time at the Jeu de Paume.

“Fragile Beauty is a palimpsest of possibilities, and we invite audiences to find their own pathways and select their own favourite photographs. The collection is at times surprising, playful and – as John reminded us as we planned the exhibition – mischievous in spirit. It is also deadly serious. We have much to learn from Elton John and David Furnish’s photography collection. Sharing in their collecting passions is a rare privilege. And if in doing so we get to know something of the collectors, then all the better.” --- Duncan Forbes, Head of Photography, V&A