Glamor and grit are both on show in a London exhibition of photos from Elton John's collection

LONDON (AP) — A new exhibition of photographs owned by Elton John is everything one might expect from a star who has a fascination with image, a love of excess and a very large budget. Understated, it isn’t.

The show, opening this week at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, includes more than 300 pieces by 140 photographers selected from the vast collection of John and his husband David Furnish.

Covering the period from 1950 to the present day, they include iconic fashion shots by Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Herb Ritts, portraits of stars including The Beatles, Frank Sinatra Marilyn Monroe Chet Baker, and photojournalism capturing moments from the Black civil rights movement of the 1960s to 1980s AIDS activism and the Sept. 11 attacks.

Newell Harbin, director of the couple’s collection, agreed that the sheer scale of the show is “a lot.”