Bond producer Michael G. Wilson realises dream of London photography gallery

The Art Newspaper reports that, a few years ago, while serving as chairman of the trustees of the National Media Museum in Bradford, Michael Wilson, the co-producer of the James Bond films who is a photography enthusiast, came up with a plan to bring the best of the extensive historic photography collections held in Yorkshire to the British capital.

After a long, hard campaign to raise the £4.5m needed for the project (the search for a London space was launched in 2009), this month Wilson’s ambition will finally be realised with the opening of the Media Space, on the second floor of the Science Museum. The National Media Museum is a northern branch of the Science Museum.

At the heart of the Media Space is a 525 sq. m gallery, which is due to open on 21 September with “Only in England: Photographs by Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr” (until 16 March 2014). The display of 100 works by the pioneering chronicler of English customs, the late Tony Ray-Jones, have been chosen by the Magnum photographer Martin Parr whose own, little-known, black and white series “The Non-Conformists” shot in the 1970s in Yorkshire will be shown alongside.

There will be two photography exhibitions a year in the new gallery; the inaugural display will be followed by “Revelations: Experiments in Photography” charting the influence of early scientific photography on Modern and contemporary artists.

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