HackelBury: A Lifelong Passion for Art

The Story

12th March – 23rd May 2026

Founded twenty-eight years ago, HackelBury traces its origins to the lifelong passion for art shared by Marcus Bury and Sascha Hackel, collectors for more than thirty-six years. This exhibition brings together the works which first ignited their interest in photography and helped shape their collecting philosophy long before the gallery opened. It also celebrates the artists whose practices have defined HackelBury’s identity across the decades.

From modernist masters such as Edward Weston, Margaret Bourke-White and Consuelo Kanaga, to artists who have exhibited at the gallery including Ellen Auerbach, Berenice Abbott and Arnold Newman and to influential contemporary voices such as Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, Joanne Leonard, Doug & Mike Starn, Bill Armstrong and others, the exhibition honours the individuals who have shaped HackelBury’s past and continue to inspire its future.

The works on view — ranging from Irving Penn’s Cigarette No. 111, William Klein’s exuberant painted contacts, Joanne Leonard’s domestic interiors to Margaret Bourke-White historic image of the United Statses Airship ‘Akron’, celebrate the personal and artistic relationships at the heart of the gallery’s story. They also illuminate Sascha and Marcus’s enduring commitment to championing artists who push the boundaries of their medium to create meaningful and contemplative work.

Curated as a “memoir” with selections made by founders Sascha Hackel and Marcus Bury alongside contributions from the HackelBury team, the exhibition offers a shared reflection on the images and artists which resonate at HackelBury. It is a celebration of works, a tribute to the relationships which have shaped HackelBury, and an homage to the artists who continue to define the gallery’s vision.

About HackelBury Fine Art

HackelBury was founded twenty-eight years ago by Marcus Bury and Sascha Hackel. The gallery is committed to championing artists working with the visual arts who push the boundaries of their medium to create meaningful and contemplative work.

The London based gallery initially showcased classic photography from the 20th century including Henri Cartier- Bresson, Berenice Abbott, Malick Sidibe, and Sebastião Salgado. The transition from traditional photography to more conceptual work was as intuitive as it was organic, beginning with artists such as William Klein, Pascal Kern, Doug and Mike Starn, Garry Fabian Miller, Katja Liebmann, Ian McKeever, Stephen Inggs and Bill Armstrong.

In recent years the gallery has taken on emerging artists such as Oli Kellett, Nadezda Nikolova, Alys Tomlinson, Coral Woodbury and Sharon Walters.

Each artist, whether emerging or established, creates work defined by a depth of thought and breadth and consistency of approach. The small group of artists with whom HackelBury work, represent a diversity of practice yet share an artistic integrity which the gallery is fully committed to supporting in the long term.

____

The HackelBury Story     

Sascha Hackel, co-founder of HackelBury Fine Art, entered the art world not through formal training but through an early love of black-and-white cinema. After moving to London in her twenties, a chance encounter at Hamiltons Gallery gave her an unexpected start in the photography world — a trial week which turned into seven years working with major photographers and learning the market from the inside at a time when photography was scarcely recognised as fine art in the UK.

She and her husband, Marcus Bury, became passionate collectors in the 1990s — the days when an Irving Penn print could still be bought for £1,500 and when viewing 600-lot auctions at Sotheby’s or Christie’s was an education in itself. Their shared instinct for discovering photographers under-recognised in London became the seed of a future gallery.

In 1998, with a one-year-old at home, the couple transformed a dilapidated local frame shop, on Launceston Place, into HackelBury Fine Art. They opened not with glamorous fashion photography but with Roman Vishniac — a statement of seriousness, integrity and historical depth. From the start, they built their programme around artists who had not been properly exhibited in London, developing long-standing relationships defined by trust, loyalty and a deep belief in each artist’s work.

Although rooted in photography, HackelBury has always followed its artists as their practices evolve, supporting shifts across disciplines as naturally as they unfold. Over the years, the gallery has championed photographers moving into new mediums — from drawing to filmmaking — and has worked closely with multidisciplinary voices such as Doug and Mike Starn and Ian McKeever, whose practice bridges photography and painting, and Coral Woodbury, whose work spans image, object and text. This commitment to accompanying artists on their creative journeys has become as central to the gallery’s identity as its dedication to photographic practice itself.

Over 25+ years, HackelBury became known for championing humanist, street and conceptual photography, introducing London to figures such as Pascal Kern, Martine Franck, Malick Sidibe, and later forging decades-long collaborations with artists including Doug and Mike Starn, William Klein and Marc Riboud. Unlike many galleries, they still operate without contracts —relationships sustained by trust, shared values and a commitment to supporting artists through everything from health crises to book publishing.

Through constant shifts in the art world, from the 2008 crash to COVID to a transformed media landscape, the gallery has persisted by staying true to a core ethos: only show artists whose work they would collect themselves; invest deeply and emotionally in every relationship; price work ethically; and prioritise long-term development.

In recent years, a new generation of women artists has entered the programme, reflecting a conscious shift toward nurturing female voices and emerging talents who resonate emotionally and conceptually with the gallery’s history.

The Story exhibition brings all of this together — not a retrospective of artists, but a meditation on 29 years of relationships, instincts, risks and quiet revolutions within the photography world.