Whilst there may have been many exhibitions that featured Sophie pictures over the years, the following are ones that I have personally seen or have information about. All were held in London (unless otherwise stated) and all relevant info is included. As you can see, some were held in conjunction with books "of the event". Given Sophie's "withdrawal" from the modelling scene, it seems unlikely that too many future exhibitions will include our heroine, so who knows - maybe this is a complete list?
The John Kobal Photographic Portrait Award 1997
The National Portrait Gallery
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Held between 17th October 1997 and 11th January 1998, this exhibition featured a series of 60 photos from a submission of hundreds more that were entered into the John Kobal Award. Sophie’s picture was one of the photos that was shot by Adrian Wilson for her ‘centrefold’ appearance in the “Cheap Date” magazine in 1997. The photo can be found in the “Cheap Date” book mentioned elsewhere on this site. Sophie was interviewed about the exhibition just before it was opened – track down the 16th October 1997 issue of “Hot Tickets”, a magazine given free on that date only with the “Evening Standard” newspaper, to read the full transcript, where she describes the photo as one of her favourites. The mag features the photo, plus a small pic of Sophie taken at a Breast Cancer Awareness photocall in London the previous June. The photo above was taken roughly around the same time.
Mario Testino Portraits
The National Portrait Gallery
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Launched in London, and held at the NPG from 1st February to 4th June 2002, this exhibition was certainly high profile. There are related TV shows, magazines and books (all detailed elsewhere on this site). The photo in this exhibition is the January 2002 cover of "Vogue". There was a fee to attend this exhibition so related memorabilia includes tickets with the exhibition name and date printed on them. A free guide to the exhibition was given out to all entrants, showing you what photos were where in the hall. The exhibition has since reached Edinburgh's Dean Gallery with a run from 16th April until 15th June 2003.
La Chapelle Photographs
The Barbican Centre
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Held in the latter part of 2002, running from 10th October to 23rd December, this exhibition was a multi media event. The Sophie photograph in the main hall was a picture of her in a bath covered in spaghetti, with fellow model Devon Aoki by her side. A small reprint is shown above. There were also two 'continuous-play' videos running - one featuring music videos directed by La Chapelle and the other, a Channel 5 documentary about him and this exhibition. This documentary featured both this and one other still of Sophie, the latter picture featuring commentary by Isabella Blow, the woman who 'discovered' Sophie. A free guide to the exhibition made no mention of Sophie. Again, it was a ticket entry show - each ticket gave access to both this and one other exhibition upstairs, and both are printed on the ticket. The "bonus" photo below is from another TV show featuring 1997 era footage, "Dazzled", and a quick link can be found to it via here: www.judgmentofparis.com/video.htm
Unseen Vogue
The Design Museum
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Running from November 1st 2002 to 23rd February 2003, this exhibition was held in conjunction with the book of the same name. All pictures were taken from the book, Sophie's picture is the one that is also in the "American Photo" mag mentioned elsewhere on this site. Another ticketed affair (although only available to buy on the day, unlike the Testino one), the ticket contained no show information, just date and time of entry.
British Blondes
The National Portrait Gallery (lower hall)
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A free exhibition, shown in a far smaller part of the NPG than the Testino show. Held in connection with another 'Blondes' exhibition at the Getty Images Gallery, this one featured the picture of Sophie taken for the February 2003 "Vogue" cover. Held from 3rd March to 6th July 2003.
Style Queens Of The 20th Century
Getty Images Gallery
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Another freebie, this exhibition features a lovely picture of Sophie that once appeared in Loaded's "Britain's Most Wanted" supplement from October 2001 - a list of the UK's most attractive women, allowing Sophie to nestle next to soap stars and Page 3 Girls! Held between 30th April and 5th June 2003, the exhibition displayed pictures currently owned by Getty Images and the Hulton Archive. Sophie's picture, taken in New York in 2000, is from the Getty collection.
A photocopied handout was available at the exhibition, giving information about obtaining pictures shown at the gallery (you could buy a glossy version of the picture for £125+) as well as a complete list, with pictures, of all the images on display. The pictures in the handout are printouts from the Getty and Hulton websites, hence the appearance of a copyright across Sophie's photo. The handout says that anybody can search their websites, but in fact, only the Hulton website was searchable at the time - you needed to work for a company to gain access to Sophie's picture in the Getty site. Getty's site has since been changed so that anybody can now view this and other Sophie pictures (albeit with a copyright logo across the centre of each photo) - their site is at http://editorial.gettyimages.com/ - although I think the option to buy the exhibition picture is no longer available. The picture can be viewed under image number 1301651 on this site - a "top half" only shot is shown above.
People & Portraits
The Proud Gallery (Central Gallery)
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Another freebie, featuring photographs by fellow Supermodel Helena Christensen. Held at the Charing Cross branch of the Proud Gallery between 5th September and 4th October 2003, the main part of the exhibition took place on the ground floor of the gallery. The exhibition was sponsored by Levi's And Elle, and Helena took photos of 12 celebrities wearing Levi's Jeans which formed the body of the ground floor display. All the images were later auctioned off for The Terence Higgins Trust. However, in addition to this, over 40 more of Helena's pictures were displayed downstairs which were not 'themed' like the ground floor - one of Sophie's pictures that Helena took for the August 2003 issue of "Elle" was displayed. All images on display were signed by Helena and the downstairs prints were also auctioned off - 25 of the Sophie pictures were sold for approximately £500+ each. The September 27th showing of ITV show "Entertainment Now" featured an interview with Helena, and video footage shot inside the gallery, including a clip of the Sophie display.
15 Minutes
The Hospital
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Held at a Covent Garden gallery between June 10th and August 22nd 2004, this collection of Richard Young photographs was displayed to coincide with the release of his book “Shooting Stars”, more of which is discussed elsewhere in this part of the site. Unusually, the exhibition and the book did not necessarily use the same set of pictures – the photo of Sophie displayed at this exhibition was a photo of her and Jodie Kidd backstage at the Matthew Williamson fashion show in London in February 2001 and differs from the Sophie picture in Young’s book.
Obsessed By You
Phillips de Pury & Company
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A London exhibition from 2008, this exhibition featured the "Union Jack" Vogue cover shoot photo that also featured in the "Mario Testino Portraits" show some six years before. Testino's website shows photos from the actual exhibition, detailing where/how some of the images were displayed, and this link should take you to the relevant page where you will see a picture of the above image, as was seen at the exhibition: http://www.mariotestino.com/page/135
Out Of Context
Getty Images Gallery
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Another Getty Images exhibtion, this time from 2010, this exhibition featured "more than 50 celebrities...snapped doing what makes them happy". The exhibtion ran from the 20th to the 30th of January, and Sophie's picture was also printed in the "Sunday Times Magazine" on 4th October 2009. A limited number of prints of each photo (25 per shot) were also made available at the time, some signed by the photographer, Lorraine Goddard.
