Stuart Lawson Photography

METAMORPHOSES

St John’s Waterloo, London
23–25 January 2026

These works draw on chronophotography to compress time into a single image. Each figure holds traces of what has just passed and what is about to emerge — presence unfolding rather than fixed.

Presented in the crypt of St John’s Waterloo, the exhibition becomes a dialogue between body, memory and transformation.

About the Exhibition

London, UK — January 2026
St John’s Waterloo presents METAMORPHOSES, a new exhibition by British photographer Stuart Lawson, running from 23–25 January 2026 in the atmospheric crypt and gallery spaces of this landmark South Bank venue. Known for his distinctive chronophotographic portraits, Lawson draws on work with ballet dancers in Russia, artisans in France, and folk performers in Uzbekistan to explore movement, memory, and the fluidity of identity, compressing extended gestures into a single frame; in addition, his portraits seek to expose the character within. Curated by Nicolas Havette, the exhibition reflects Lawson’s journey of migration and reinvention and invites viewers to encounter portraits shaped by history, rupture, and resilience, offering a meditation on life’s capacity for transformation.

“Stuart Lawson’s work reminds us that identity is never fixed. Each portrait is a living trace of someone becoming. In the gallery space of St John’s, these images breathe differently; they invite us to slow down and witness the quiet transformations that shape every human life.”

Nicolas Havette

About the Artist

Stuart Lawson is a British photographer based in France who rekindled his practice in 2015 after gaining unprecedented access to the Perm Ballet Company, leading to Dancer’s Soul, created with dancers from the Stanislavsky and Bolshoi ballets. After relocating to Provence, he expanded his motion-focused studio work to musicians, athletes, and the artisans and shopkeepers of Hyères. His work has been exhibited in Russia, France, Germany, the UK, Japan, Uzbekistan, and Dubai, and published in two books, reflecting his ability to capture both movement and the inner character of his subjects.

Curator Note

Curatorial Note — Nicolas Havette

Metamorphoses unfolds in the suspended space of the crypt at St John’s Waterloo, where time loosens and presence deepens. Drawing on chronophotography, Stuart Lawson’s images compress sequences of movement into a single frame. These portraits do not fix identity; they reveal it as a continuous process of transformation.