Head to the Mosaic Rooms on Cromwell Road for a rare exhibition featuring photos from Israel this month.

From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction & State Formation is an exhibition documenting the early years of the Israeli state. The show is curated by visual theorist Ariella Azoulay.

These photos, previously confined to Israeli state archives, depict four crucial years in the history of Palestine / Israel: 1947 to 1950. This is the first time that many of these images have been seen outside Israel.

Visit the show, and you’ll see more than 200 striking images, illustrating the story behind the first years of the Israeli State and its relationship with the remaining Palestinians.

The photos tell the story of how the Palestinian majority in Mandatory Palestine became a minority in Israel, while the Jewish minority established a new political entity becoming a majority ruling a minority Palestinian population.

As a leading visual theorist, Azoulay is able to provide fascinating analytical explanation of the images. Azoulay says,

“The constituent violence recorded in photos from these years should not be mistakenly and anachronistically read as signs of unavoidable national conflict. What was and still is truly unavoidable is not national conflict, but rather co-existence of Jews and Palestinians in a shared territory and the open space for a variety of forms to shape, practice, express and represent this co-existence.”

The exhibition, which runs from 4 to 25 November, will be accompanied by a series of talks on the relationship between archival photography, film and the writing (or re-writing) of history. Visit www.mosaicrooms.org/from-palestine-to-israel to find out more.

Do you know of any other examples of Israeli culture in London? Let us know in the comments below.

The Caribbean is being well represented in London at the moment. Rihanna’s in town (both in real life, and in waxwork), it’s Black History Month, and there’s this new exhibition of photos from the Caribbean at the Redbridge Museum.

So, if you’re looking for a slice of Dominica in London, Island to Island: Dominica, Barbados and Britain is the show for you.

Island to Island: Dominica, Barbados and Britain is a collection of photographs exploring the links between East London and the Caribbean at the Redbridge Museum. The photos are complemented by stories of migration and experiences of living on the islands of Dominica and Barbados, and in Britain.

Photographer Tim Smith, who spent his childhood in Barbados and Dominica, shares his collection of photographs featuring the Dominican community in East London and Bradford and images taken on the two islands.  There are also photographs by Tim’s father, Derek Smith, showing everyday life on the islands during the 1960s.

One image features 76-year-old Wade Bells outside a fish and rum shop in Wesley, Dominica. Wade lived in Ladbroke Grove in London during the 1960s and has now retired to Dominica. 

The museum is also holding Caribbean-themed activities during October half term week.  Young visitors can enjoy stories and songs about carnival in the Caribbean on 25 October or join an arts and crafts session to make your own mini Caribbean island on 26 October.

Island to Island is at the Redbridge Museum until 31 December. Entrance is free. Visit www.redbridge.gov.uk to find out more.

Laura Mannering, freelance journalist and editor of travel blog worldoutthere.net, visits a photography exhibition at The Little Black Gallery:

In a rarefied corner of Chelsea, amid immaculate mews houses, purring sports cars and ladies who lunch, stands The Little Black Gallery. It may be small, but it is increasingly packing a punch on the London art scene. Alternating between shows by up-and-coming photographers and big names like Terry O’Neill and Bob Carlos Clarke, LBG champions young trailblazers and pays tribute to legends.

The gallery’s new exhibition sees film director Mike Figgis show off his talent for photography. Best known for the movie Leaving Las Vegas, he is also an accomplished lensman, his pictures reflecting the dreamy/gritty style which is his directorial trademark. Figgis’s Hollywood credentials, plus the identity of his main subject – the one and only Kate Moss – make this London’s most glamorous show of the moment.

Kate & Other Women is exhibited over the gallery’s two floors, with street level devoted to never-seen-before images of the supermodel.

The opening night saw a gregarious, well-heeled crowd flit around the provocative collection, which sees Kate smouldering in to-die-for lingerie (the photos were shot as part of an Agent Provocateur campaign). Downstairs the homage to Kate continues, combined with other celebrations of the female form, from theatrical nudes to pop culture babes.

Orange stickers showed the prints were selling too – a visit to LBG can create a hole in your wallet, as the exhibits are available to buy. If you can’t afford to splash out, there is a good range of photography books and postcards to go home with.

Never afraid to shy away from controversy, the gallery has forged a reputation for pushing boundaries. What really puts it on the map though is its archive of work by Bob Carlos Clarke – one of Britain’s most highly-regarded fashion photographers, who died in 2006.

Clarke was famous for creating erotically-charged images of famous names. A previous retrospective of his work sparked complaints that the content was not suitable to be seen by schoolchildren who were innocently passing the gallery’s plate-glass windows. In a tongue-in-cheek bid to appease any disgruntled locals, this year’s Carlos Clarke exhibition was dubbed “Peep Show” and saw the gallery’s windows blacked out, save for a small hole at grown-up eye level. 

Style, originality, wit and sex appeal make up the Little Black Gallery’s modus operandi – and the current combination of Figgis and Moss fits right in. Step inside for a taste of stardom.

Mike Figgis – Kate & Other Women: The Little Black Gallery, 13A Park Walk, London SW10 0AJ, until 30 July 2011. Visit www.thelittleblackgallery.com for more information

The Museum of London has a new exhibition dedicated to Street Photography opening tomorrow. I went along for an early preview this morning, and was lucky enough to look around the show with the museum’s Senior Curator of Photographs, Mike Seaborne.

The show is divided into sections by date, beginning with the very earliest shots of streets in London from around 1860, and taking us right up to present day.

Through the ages, you can see the rise in press photography between 1890 and 1920, some incredible pictures of London during the Blitz, and the development of a more abstract expressionism in photography in the post-war period. The theme of photography as documentary runs through the exhibition, whether it’s an attempt to capture “life as it is”, or a more deliberate effort to record social hardships, cultural shifts and the evolution of London.

While I couldn’t get curator Mike Seaborne to decide on a favourite image, he did point out a few of his highlights. Two, by Horace Nicholls, that he “found” while searching the archives almost look like photographic nods to Renoir paintings, they’re so beautiful. “I didn’t know we had any images by this photographer. They’d actually been wrongly attributed,” Seaborne explains. “I’d seen one in the National Media Museum, so I recognised these immediately. They’re very important examples of photography of the time.” Other favourites of Seaborne’s are by the German photographer and documentary filmmaker Lutz Dille. The incredibly striking portraits are a fantastic snapshot of life in London in the early 1960s.

Seaborne admits to having the edit the museum’s archive of photography “very savagely” for the exhibition. “We’ve really cut down on the contemporary section. The contemporary photos don’t have the same social concerns of those in the 1930s. The nature of documentary has changed: literally everyone with an iphone can do it now.”

There certainly is a very different “feel” to the later part of the exhibition. It’s as though, once colour is introduced, my response to the photos changes: these pictures are more familiar, perhaps less political than the previous shots. What they certainly capture perfectly is the changing nature of photography. As Seaborne points out, everyone’s at it these days.

In fact, the Museum of London is offering you the chance to win an iPad. Just take your own street photography scene and upload the image to their flickr album. Don’t forget to check out the excellent, free exhibition first for some inspiration!

London Street Photography is at the Museum of London until 4 September. As previously mentioned, the exhibition, along with the museum, is free.

Tate Britain’s new exhibition of 19th Century photographs by Eadweard Muybridge left me thinking not just about the power of his images (which laid the foundations for cinema) but also about Muybridge’s strange personality.

Among prints of the American wilderness, stunning panoramas of early San Francisco, and pioneering stop-frame photos of animals and people in motion, there are portraits of Muybridge staring out with a severe expression from behind his wiry facial hair, and slumped moodily against a giant redwood tree.

It must have taken an obsessive personality to venture out into the wilderness and set up darkrooms in caves and mountain tops (he had to process the photos immediately after taking them in those days). Muybridge was also a canny self-promoter, changing his name various times. The spelling “Eadweard” was inspired by a Saxon King.

But halfway through the exhibition a shocking fact about his identity comes to light: he was a murderer. In 1874, on discovering that his son was not in fact his own, he killed his wife’s lover, Harry Larkyns. The following year he was tried but acquitted on the basis that the killing was “justifiable”.

If he had been jailed for the crime, none of his most amazing, groundbreaking works would be sitting in the Tate today, but you can’t help but get a sinister feeling when you look into his eyes.

Eadweard Muybridge at Tate Britain until 16th January 2011. Entry £10, concessions £8.50

This morning I made the short hop across London to attend the National Portrait Gallery’s preview of pioneering photographer Camille Silvy’s work.

Silvy was one of the early founders of 19th century photography across a number of disciplines. The French artist’s work in photo manipulation also helped to set the standard for modern-day artists.

I was immediately impressed by the depth of the exhibition, which is the first ever retrospective exhibition of the photographer’s work.

The display includes Silvy’s stunning work in rural scenes, fashion portraits and snapshots of everyday Victorian life, but also artefacts such as the dress Alice Silvy wore in one of his portraits.

Arguably the most striking example of Silvy’s work is the tranquil river landscape entitled River Scene.  In this picture, Silvy used different negatives to capture the view, one for the sky and one for the landscape.

The Studies on Light series of three photos including Sun, Twilight and Fog, are also noteworthy. In Twilight – the most alluring – a man is buying his newspaper from a young boy in a deserted street, while a blurred object lurks in the dimming light, creating a mystical aura.

Blurring, the use of multiple negatives, and the burning-in method used in River Scene are just a few examples of Silvy’s pioneering techniques.

Make sure you don’t miss Silvy’s Daybooks, already part of the National Portrait Gallery’s collection. These include fantastic examples of early fashion photography beginning in 1867 with Miss Valpy.

Camille Silvy at the National Portrait Gallery opens tomorrow until 24 October.

Wolfgang Tillmans, the 2000 Turner Prize winner, has been a leading light in abstract photography and photo manipulation and this show is a stunning sample of his work.

The Lighter Series, in which Tillmans challenges the idea of photography as simply a two-dimensional medium, is a stunning collection of bold coloured prints with creases and crinkles transforming them into sculptural items.

Some of Tillmans’ other celebrated work is on display here, such as the simple Paper Drop, a photo of a curled image forming a tear-drop.

Among his new work is Space, Food, Religion, busy montages of images, pamphlets and journalism.

One focuses on consumerism with a photograph of graffiti stating “OBEY CONSUME DIE / THAT’S RIGHT FOLKS”. Another challenges the issues of paedophilia in the Catholic Church, the repression of homosexuality and genital mutilation.

It’s clear that Tillmans’ work continues to push boundaries in new and innovative ways.

It’s his first major exhibition in London since 2003, so don’t miss out!

Wolfgang Tillmans at the Serpentine Gallery 26 Jun-19 Sep

Fans can peruse two floors of images, shot by “band insider” Phil Griffin including previously unpublished and private photos, as well as pics from upcoming official Bon Jovi book When We Were Beautiful. The British Music Experience will also be showing teaser screenings of the soon-to-be-released Bon Jovi documentary of the same name.

If you’ve already got Bon Jovi gig tickets, there’s an extra reason to get your ripped denim-clad self to the BME, as entry is reduced to £5 for Bon Jovi ticket holders.

Here’s Jon Bon proving he’s still a beauty rocking a fetching skull necklace.

When We Were Beautiful at the British Music Experience, 7-25 Jun 2010, entrance to museum £15, £5 for Bon Jovi ticket holders. www.britishmusicexperience.com/Bon-Jovi

If you are an avid Vogue reader like me then you may have heard of American photographer Irving Penn, as many of his works were commissioned by the magazine and their collaboration continued for more than 50 years.

The National Portrait Gallery has worked closely with Penn’s estate to create the stunning collection.

Each of the 120 portraits featured illustrate Penn’s unique style. His rich yet simple black and white prints feature a range of high-profile subjects. You can see actors, poets, writers and painters including Audrey Hepburn, TS Eliot, Truman Capote and Pablo Picasso; each revealing a little of their characters through the photographer’s lens.

Sadly, Irving Penn passed away late last year. This exhibition celebrates his life’s work and his huge contribution to the world of photography and portraits. It is an absolute delight and a fine tribute to the photographer and his subjects.

Irving Penn Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery is now open and runs until 6 June.

I’ve got a confession to make, after nearly three years in London, I’d never been to the British Library until last Friday. I picked a good night to initiate myself though, as it was Late at the Library’s Victorian Values evening.

Billed as “the ultimate in glamour, bawdiness and wit”, Victorian Values was an evening of Victorian-themed entertainment and sideshows, with a burlesque twist. The night was put on to complement the British Library’s first-ever major photographic exhibition, Points of View: Capturing the 19th Century in Photographs (open now until 7 March, free entry)

I stepped into the cavernous BL Entry Hall to the sound of host Desmond O’Connor (not that one!) who was strenuously strumming the ukulele as he sang one of his tongue-twisting tunes. I was just in time to witness Kittie Klaw’s Victorian burlesque act – as behoved the era, she didn’t strip but did give herself a rather rigorous rocking chair ride while reading a racy novel.

Other performances included Victorian-style tableaux, Mr Joe Black looking funereal and reviewing the situation Oliver-style and, perhaps my favourite of the evening, Red Sarah as a Victorian strongman, complete with stripy suit and barbell. Another huge crowd-pleaser was Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer, who does a medley of modern songs – from Beastie Boys to The Prodigy – in a thoroughly amusing, old-fashioned style that he calls “Chap-Hop”, while accompanying himself on the banjolele.

While the Oompah Brass band played between acts, I popped downstairs to check out the exhibition. It’s a collection of early photographs and films, with an interesting mix of displays (light boxes, projections, prints, etc) and a huge range of subject matter (exotic animals, x-rays, daily life and even pictures of “spirits”). Taken in conjunction with the informative descriptions about Victorian photographic equipment and techniques, it provides a fascinating insight into the birth of photography.

As well as the photography display, the BL has a permanent collection covering all manner of book-related things. I didn’t have time to explore the full breadth of what is here, but I’ll definitely be back to check out the Gutenburg Bible, Mozart manuscripts and, uh, the Philatelic Exhibition (stamps).

There’s also a programme of talks and performances on topics ranging from Jane Austen to HIV policies in Africa, to Harold Pinter to Beowulf. Check out www.bl.uk for the full list of events.

If I may quote The Simpsons: To the book depository!