Two decades after the photographer's death, this new exhibition of Bob Carlos Clarke's photos shows why his most confrontational images were never accidents, but carefully built collaborations

A black and white photograph of a nude woman reclining on a leather sofa in high heels, holding a lit cigarette.

Bob Carlos Clarke spent a career being filed under a single word: provocative. That's accurate in one sense, but it's also the kind of shorthand that lets people skip past the actual work. As a new retrospective opens in London, it's a good opportunity to look past the hype and take a closer look at his actual process, because for photographers there's more craft here than the headlines suggest.

The Last Dolls, opening at Atlas Gallery on 5 September and curated by Brandei Estes, marks 20 years since the Irish photographer died in 2006 and is the first Carlos Clarke show in London for a decade. It brings together signed edition prints, rare unique prints, one-of-a-kind collages and pieces from his celebrated Love Dolls Never Die series.