BRUCE Bernard: Artists And Their Studios, a new touring exhibition from the Hayward Gallery, is newly on show in the Art & Design Foyer of York College until October 18.

This show of 24 photographs includes six Bernard studies of Francis Bacon in 1984 and a powerful series of portraits of Lucian Freud from the 1990s, while other photographs taken in Freud's studio show his models Leigh Bowery and Nicola Bateman lying naked on a bed, bathed in a light reminiscent of Rembrandt's portraits.

Bernard's last portraits, of Euan Uglow and Frank Auerbach, were shot shortly before his death in 2000 and form part of an exhibition that is opening in York before touring extensively around Britain.

Bernard, who was born in 1928, was a picture editor and curator of photography, and the brother of a certain Jeffrey Bernard (of Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell and prodigious drinking fame). Like bibulous columnist Jeffrey, he frequented the pubs and clubs of bohemian Soho, where he met of the artists who were to become his lifelong friends.

At The Sunday Times in the 1970s, Bernard commissioned the work of the best war photographer of his era, Don McCullin. In a second Bernard exhibition, 100 Photographs: A Collection Of Bruce Bernard is on display in the Canon Photography Gallery at the V&A in London until January 26.

Admission to the York exhibition is free, and opening hours are 9am to 5pm, Mondays to Fridays.

Updated: 09:21 Friday, September 27, 2002