Right in the buzz of Shoreditch, London — where creativity pulses through every street corner — photographer Kane Hibberd is bringing rock history into sharp, stunning focus. His latest exhibition, SCALE, is no ordinary gallery show. It’s a full-blown tribute to the guitars that have powered iconic riffs, shattered silence and shaped the sound of generations.
Presented at life-size and with forensic attention to detail, each image stands tall like a monument to music itself. This is gear with soul — and Hibberd treats it with the reverence (and rock ‘n’ roll attitude) it deserves.
“It’s still incredible watching people,” Kane says as the punters roll through the door. “The reactions everyone has to it, what everyone’s finding interesting. And it’s funny. Every now and again, I’ll walk past someone, and they’ll be laughing. I have to try and remember if there’s something funny in that comment. I hope they’re meant to be laughing at it.”
SCALE was photographed on a Phase One Medium Format camera with an 80mm Lens. Kane also shoots shows. For that, his weapon of choice is the Canon R1, having just moved mirrorless.
“Apart from gigs, I’ve always shot portraiture as well,” he says. “So I’m kind of used to that studio environment. But shooting guitars is a whole new learning curve and a whole new set of skills. I learned my way through on the job, I suppose.
“The first few guitars obviously taught me a lot, but then once I got the lighting down and how I wanted to do it, it was just basically replicating it. I did learn a few things because I was always in a different environment. So sometimes I’d be in a green room, or I could be in someone’s house.
“I quickly learned to check for reflections and things like that. With different coloured guitars, things were different. Reflections and things like that. So it’s been a learning process. I’m enjoying not having to wrangle somebody and not having to chase after somebody. The guitar doesn’t move, so it’s easier in that sense.”
Walking around the exhibition, it is impressive how Kane Hibberd managed to achieve continuity. “I used exactly the same equipment,” he says. “So I built a kit that I would just shoot the guitars with. Obviously the camera and the focal length and then the lighting that I used and the lighting modifiers and the stands.
“After a while, I kind of knew that I was obviously shooting on the same f-number [F11 on ISO 100]. So, all those settings never changed. The hardest thing was sometimes the environment, influencing how the light bounced and spilt. So I was trying to control that the best I could.
“In post-production, obviously, I could darken the shadow a little bit more if I needed to, or the contrast. But the whole goal was to not manipulate the images too much so as to keep them natural as if they were coming out of the camera. So it’s the closest people ever get to looking at the instrument without actually being in front of the real thing.”
Presented on a 1 to 1 scale, it’s so incredible how the pictures look. These guitars have their own portraits almost. You can feel the character. All the dents, all the scratches. It is an amazing achievement.
The basis for the presentation is portrait exhibitions. “It was portraits on a white background, so it strips away everything else. Just the portrait of the person’s face or the character. That’s what I wanted to do with the guitar.
“It’s stripping away the artist, but not entirely. It’s stripping away the visual element of the artist holding the guitar. But then you’ve obviously still got the connection with the artist through the conversations that I had and the narration that you can listen to.
“It’s really nice just to look at the guitar, especially how it’s lit all the same way, so then you get a context of looking from one guitar to another. You can understand the scale because the frames and the paper are the same size.
“But then because the light sits the same, you then can get a context of some of the dents and scratches and the colours of them. You get a reference point to that helps you have more context of each image.”
Kane Hibberd’s background comes from taking “a little point-and-shoot camera to gigs. June 12th, 2005, I took my DSLR camera to a gig for the primary purpose of I’m gonna take photos of this. I’m not here to see the band. I’m here to take some photographs.” From there, it was the incremental steps that all photographers are aware of.
The seeds for SCALE had been sown years earlier, but 2021 was the beginning of creating the project. “The connotations of long haul trucking and long haul flights,” Kane smiles. “This whole project was perseverance. It was just like, just keep going, be patient, and you will get there eventually. Something will eventually happen. And it did.”
As for the future, Kane has ideas. “I’m really interested in pushing the boundaries of how big you can make a print while still keeping the detail,” he says. “Still keeping the 1 to 1 detail. I also like increasing the size of something, so something that’s usually viewed really small, printing it really, really big. You get this context of looking at the detail of something that you normally wouldn’t see.
“There’s lots of different ideas around it. I don’t know whether my next project will be on guitars. I’ve shot a lot of guitars. But I like the idea of experimenting with things and shooting things out of context and showing things as you maybe normally wouldn’t see them.
“So I’m showing guitars as their actual size, which you normally wouldn’t see a photograph of it like that. Where I think the next thing will be shooting something that’s really small and showing it in a size that you would never naturally look at.”
Based in Melbourne, Australia, it might seem strange launching an exhibition when you live on the other side of the world. “London’s obviously one of the huge cities in the world,” Kane says, “and the caliber of music that comes out of the UK as well. We always wanted to launch it on a global platform.
“We had an opportunity here, and it kind of blossomed from a small opportunity to what we’ve launched. In the end, I think it was perfect. There are so many international artists in the exhibition that they’re not gonna see it when it’s in Australia. In London, we’ve got more chance of having some of these artists come through, especially London in summer.”
The SCALE exhibition was always designed to be a physical thing, though a book will follow in 2026. “I didn’t want people just to be able to jump on the internet and swipe through these images,” Kane says. “It was always about viewing them full size, and I think that it’s nice to have the audio kept with that. You’ll be able to see it all in the book, but as an experience, it’s nice to be able to hear that audio while seeing the actual real prints.”
Yes, this is a photographic exhibition of guitars, but it is so much more than that, when you pair the images with the conversations. “They’re not just conversations about the type of pickup that’s been included,” Kane says, “or what sort of strings they are. The technical stuff is really pushed to the background.
“It’s about that relationship each artist has with the instrument. So, for me, I always knew that guitar fans would love it. But what I know from the feedback that I’ve had is that people who even have a passing interest in music can come to this and listen to those conversations or listen to the narration and find a new appreciation for their artist and that relationship they have with their instrument.
“Because if you’ve never played, you have probably never thought about the relationship each artist has with their instrument. The people that I’ve heard going through it, they found that really interesting. It’s a whole new concept and brings a full new understanding to their favourite artist.
“So come along, even if you don’t like guitars. I’m pretty sure you’re gonna like this.”
SCALE isn’t just a showcase of instruments. This is a love letter to the power of music. One so beautifully captured through the lens of someone who has spent decades in the pit, backstage, and beyond.
From Shoreditch to stadiums, Kane Hibberd’s work reminds us that guitars aren’t just tools. They are extensions of the artists who wield them, each nick and scratch telling a story.
Whether you’re a die-hard gearhead, a gig junkie, or just someone who loves a killer photo, this exhibition hits all the right notes. Get down to Shoreditch, stand in the presence of giants, and feel the volume through the visuals.
SCALE will be at Unlocked Gallery, Shoreditch from 12 June to 31 August 2025. Tickets and more details are available from Scale-Exhibition.com.
