Rich Hardcastle: Mr Detective Man, Mead Carney Fine Art

Celebrity photographer Rich Hardcastle returns to Mead Carney Fine Arts gallery for one week this January with a new photography exhibition carved out as a police drama. You might know Hardcastle for his cinematic photography, where every shot suggests a complex mystery lying just beyond the frame.
Rich Hardcastle & David Gandy
In this series, supermodel David Gandy takes on the role of leading man to play the detective in Hardcastle’s stylised police drama. As the face of brands like Marks & Spencer and Dolce & Gabbana, we know best Gandy for those photographs of the British model in a pair of tight, white pants. Hardcastle’s drama at Mead Carney gallery, Dover Street, however, gives this British male model an entirely new guise as the anonymous ‘Mr Detective Man’. Alongside there is a supporting cast includes actors like Jacob Anderson, Game of Thrones’ Grey Worm, and Paul Anderson from BBC’s Peaky Blinders. Hardcastle carefully choreographs each scene in his visual narrative in order to explore the darker elements of contemporary society.
The series follows on from the absurd and tragic, Rich Hardcastle Dark Tales exhibition earlier this year where the use of claustrophobic sets and ambiguous context created a powerful sense of uncertainty to unsettle the viewer.
Who is Rich Hardcastle?
The originality of Hardcastle’s unusual aesthetic has, unsurprisingly, made him a hugely sought-after editorial photographer, and he has worked for titles like Rolling Stone, Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire. Some of his work also belongs to the collection of the National Gallery, London.
This new photography exhibition in London promises to both amuse and disturb viewers in equal measure. Having enjoyed the dark humour of the last instalment, we look forward to finding out what comes next for Hardcastle. On the other hand, we might never be able to look at a Mark & Spencer advert in the same way.