Snap: canon photography gallery

A new exhibition site bursts onto the London scene, all guns blazing, on Thursday, with the opening of the Canon Photography Gallery at the V&A. The new gallery, on the ground floor of the museum, is the first dedicated space that the Victoria and Albert has had to display its 300,000- strong collection of images. These chart the history of photography, from an 1839 daguerreotype of Trafalgar Square to fashion pictures from the most recent Prada shoot. And work by a host of big names, including Cecil Beaton, Henri Cartier- Bresson, Man Ray, David Bailey, Fox Talbot and Roger Fenton is also promised. The inaugural show is an introduction to the V&A's collection entitled "Photography: an Independent Art", which has as its centrepiece The Oval Court (1986), an installation by Helen Chadwick. Got the picture? Then head for the V&A, and make it snappy.

Canon Photography Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, SW7 (0171-938 8441) from 21 May