If You Leave: The world’s best single image photography | Huck

Sign up to our newsletter and become a Club Huck member.

Stay informed with the cutting edge of sport, music and counterculture

If You Leave: The world’s best single image photography

  • Photography by Thomas Line
Blown away in one shot — The If You Leave Showcase 2016 celebrates the photographs that pack a punch and say everything they need to say in just a single image.

The best documentary photographers build compelling stories through weaving images together. They spend days, months, years getting to know the people, communities and issues they’re documenting, adding a new piece to the story with each picture.

But what if you had to grab people’s attention, hold their gaze and say everything you wanted to say with just one photograph?

Photo by  Monica Forss (selected by Huck)

Photo by Monica Forss (selected by Huck)

Photo by Rafeal M. Milani

Photo by Rafeal M. Milani

If You Leave celebrates the best of contemporary photography which speaks in a single image – separate from any body of work. The 2016 IYL Showcase draws together twenty of the best single shots, selected by a panel of judges including Huck, Dazed and Confused, Aperture Foundation, and The Photographers Gallery, from thousands of entries made by photographers from across the globe.

The third edition of the Showcase takes 20 photographs, selected by 20 co-curators to be showcased in 20 distinct venues around London before departing for New York in January 2017. But you can see the full selection of 200 images on If You Leave’s Instagram and grab prints here.

Photo by Esben Bøg - Jensen

Photo by Esben Bøg – Jensen

Photo by Federico Ortega Sanchez

Photo by Federico Ortega Sanchez

For the first time, the Showcase has a base at Shoreditch’s Red Gallery, a new creative pop-up space that provides photographers with the opportunity to meet, communicate and learn. It offers visitors a wide-ranging series of talks, workshops, masterclasses, book launches, digital and analogue printing services, work spaces, film screenings and portfolio reviews that will take place during the course of the pop-up.

Photo by Angeles Peña

Photo by Angeles Peña

Find out more about the If You Leave Showcase 2016 and pop-up in London, November 30 to December 21 at Red Gallery’s The White Room.

Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.


You might like

Activism

Queer resistance & sun-soaked solidarity at the world’s largest trans pride march

Our Future, Our Fight — Over the weekend, over 150,000 people marched at the London Trans+ Pride, with the parade ending at Trafalgar Square for the first time in history.

Written by: Ella Glossop

© 2026 A. B. Bell
Culture

In photos: Black Texas life since emancipation

Kinship & Community — A new photobook and exhibition showcases the rich culture, history and community of African American folks in the Lone Star State, whose existence in the region predates colonial Britain.

Written by: Miss Rosen

Sport

London’s largest indoor skatepark to be demolished for padel courts

Better Extreme — The Barking skatepark’s fate follows that of similar indoor spaces in recent years, with operators GLL citing falling visitor numbers as the reason behind the decision.

Written by: Isaac Muk

Culture

Youthful joy & end-of-era poignancy at a London school prom

Leavers — For several years, Lewis Khan documented young people as they celebrated the last of their school days and the completion of their exams. The series is now collated in a new self-published photobook and short film.

Written by: Zoe Whitfield

Culture

Harry Gruyaert’s vintage, kaleidoscopic scenes of New York

A Sense of Place — For 50 years, the Belgian photographer and Magnum Photos member has been capturing NYC’s colourful chaos. A new photobook and exhibition showcase his unique, technicolour view of the city.

Written by: Miss Rosen

Sport

In the pit at one of the UK’s last stock car & banger speedways

Stock Car Racing Isn’t Dead — Photographer Liam McCarthy spent time in and around the Arlington Raceway’s circuit, capturing the diehard community that keeps the sport alive.

Written by: Isaac Muk

You've read articles this month Thanks for reading

Join Club Huck — it's free!

Valued Huck reader, thank you for engaging with our journalism and taking an interest in our dispatches from the sharp edge of culture, sport, music and rebellion.

We want to offer you the chance to join Club Huck [it's free!] where you will receive exclusive newsletters, including personal takes on the state of pop culture and media from columnist Emma Garland, culture recommendations, interviews and dispatches straight to your inbox.

You'll also get priority access to Huck events, merch discounts, and more fun surprises.

Already part of the club? Enter your email above and we'll get you logged in.