The Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum - the world’s largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, sounds good, doesn’t it? But when I went for the very first time a month ago the new exhibition on photography wasn’t yet open! A tragedy. But a last-minute diary change gave me a free day in London, and this just so happened to be the 25th May, which was the opening day for the new Photography Centre. The previous two rooms had opened to the public in 2018 (opened by the now Princess of Wales) which covered the history of photography from the very earliest type, the Daguerreotype, all the way to modern digital images.

Phase two opened up a further four rooms, two of which cover more contemporary work, one which acts as a library with a rotation of books for visitors to peruse and the final one goes over the evolution of the camera. Showcasing important milestones in camera development including the famous Nikon F and ending with the first iPhone, showing you examples of the film types the older cameras used. This room also contains a large camera obscura, allowing one person to sit on one side in a brightly lit room and another to view the upside projection in the opposite dark room. Finally, two large cabinets flank the entrance to the centre stacked from floor to ceiling with an array of old cameras.

For those interested in photography it’s a great place to visit, though it’s not as densely packed as some other parts of the museum and as a film photography geek I wish there was more information on the types of cameras and the film many of the images were shot on. But that’s just me being picky. Considering what I was visiting I thought it would be a good excuse to shoot another of my expired rolls of Kodak P3200, again at ISO 800. I’m not overly precious with these rolls and this was more for a bit of fun that cutting edge photography. I do wonder though whether I should have shot this roll at ISO 400 instead. I’ll do that next time around.

Of course, there’s much more to the V&A than just photography and it’s really unlike any other museum I’ve been to before. Founded following the Great Exhibition of 1851, its principal aim was education – helping the nations designers and manufacturers to hone their craft, as well as provide inspiration to the general public. Examples of fine artworks and manufacturing from around the world were collected and put on display, and extraordinarily what couldn’t be acquired from elsewhere were instead erected as full scale casts of the originals. I’ve never been to Florence to see Michelangelo’s world-famous statue of David, but the plaster model that stands in the V&A gave me a true appreciation of how big it really is.

True to its mission of education, during the week you can find many people sat on the folding stalls provided, sketching away at the numerous replicas. With high glass ceilings flooding the room with natural light, you don’t have to worry about dingey surroundings prevented you from seeing your pencil lines in the Cast Court.

I could write endlessly about what else sits in the museum, but I think I’ll let you discover that for yourself if you haven’t already visited. Whether it’s art and design from Europe, Asia or anywhere else in the world, the temporary exhibit or just the very building itself (even the café alone is an amazing place to sit in) there’s something for everyone no matter their tastes. Like most museums in the UK, it’s also free so there’s really no excuse not to go even if it’s just for a quick wander around. You never know, perhaps it’ll inspire your next masterpiece.

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