Alex Proud
Founder, Maison Cabaret · Founder, Proud Galleries
Alex Proud opened his first gallery in 1994 and founded Proud Galleries in 1998. Proud became known for exhibitions of rock and roll and music photography, including work by Brian Duffy and Alec Byrne, featuring musicians from David Bowie to Kurt Cobain.
He co-founded the photographic book publisher Vision On with Rankin and, in 2008, the Sony World Photography Award. He appeared as a dealer on Channel 4's Four Rooms, judged Channel 4's Picture This, and wrote a weekly column for The Daily Telegraph from November 2015 to July 2016. He has also written for the London Evening Standard and The Sunday Times.
The Proud name grew into live music, restaurants and cabaret: Proud Camden in the Horse Hospital at Camden's Stables Market, Proud Cabaret City, and Proud Embankment beneath Waterloo Bridge.
His new venue, Maison Cabaret, opens at 83 Rivington Street, Shoreditch on Friday 20 November 2026: a cabaret dinner show with burlesque, circus, live vocals and dancing until midnight.
In the press
- Camden New Journal — Rock'n'roll models and the story of Proud
- Time Out London — David Bowie exhibition at Proud Galleries
- NME — “The Day The Music Died” at Proud Camden
- Creative Boom — Unseen images at Proud Central
- BroadwayWorld — Review of Cabaret All Stars at Proud Embankment
- The Telegraph — Alex Proud author page