If you’re not familiar with the London Vagabond, then make sure you’re somewhere private before you Google them, because the London-based lovers, fetishists, and image makers are pretty much the definition of not safe for work. This is immediately obvious in their latest show, All the rumours you heard are true, opening at Manchester’s Village Books on April 7.
All the rumours you heard are true is a document of the exhibitionists, sex workers, and fetish clubs that the London Vagabond have encountered over the years, as well as an intimate window into their own personal sex lives. “What are the things that make us feel most alive?” the show asks. “Is it to love? Is it to fuck? Is it when we are at our most vulnerable?”
Reflecting the couple’s own relationship, these questions are filtered through male submissive and female dominant perspectives. Reflecting their artistic practise, they’re intertwined with the voyeuristic nature of photography, in which the camera becomes both a participant in the fantasy and a way to watch it unfold from a distance.
“We’ve seen a lot over the last decade,” say the London Vagabond, adding that the rumours about their subversive lifestyle are, as suggested by the title, all true. “The selection of images for this show has that ‘life flashes before your eyes’ feeling, a montage of the filth we’ve witnessed or been involved in, and the subjects who have enjoyed performing to our lens.” More likely than not, viewers will be granted a glimpse into a world that they’ve never experienced IRL, of unbridled and unapologetic sexuality.
The London Vagabond’s All the rumours you heard are true opens at Village Books, Manchester, on April 7, 2023.
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