Terence Pepper
Collection
The Terence Pepper Collection has been compiled by leading photographic historian and curator Terence Pepper over the past 40 years. It contains over 2,000 photographs and prints including many by leading photographers and historic news picture libraries and includes prints from the early days of photography through to the present day. The scope of the collection is wide-reaching but is especially strong on portraits, the 1960s, fashion and female photographers. The collection also has an extensive archive of 20th century magazines relating to fashion, high society, pop culture and music.
Current Display
Wall of Fame
National Portrait Gallery, Room 22 - until August 2026
Portraiture was everywhere in the Victorian age thanks to the development of photography. The introduction of the carte-de-visite format in the late 1850s exploded the possibilities of who could own, and be shown, in a portrait. These tiny, mass-produced photographs generated a collecting craze in Britain known as 'cartomania'. A number of the works in this display were donated to the NPG by Terence Pepper, some are illustrated here.
New Loans-Out
Cecil Beaton's Fashionable World
National Portrait Gallery, London
9 Oct 2025 - 11 Jan 2026
Several works from the Terence Pepper Collection are on loan to this major exhibition, including this self-portrait drawing from 1928. Beaton was an extraordinary force in the 20th-century British and American creative scenes. Renowned as a fashion illustrator, Oscar-winning costume designer, social caricaturist and writer, Beaton elevated fashion and portrait photography into an art form.
