Photographic portrait prize - exhibition at National Portrait Gallery

On the same day, I visited the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition. I had seen the exhibition for an earlier year before I started TAOP but was disappointed with the photographs at that time. In this years exhibition, I found quite a few of the photographs interesting. I am not sure whether the quality of the photographs was better this time, or whether my taste has matured?

The NPG website only shows a handful of the prizewinning photos. It therefore takes some time to track down copies on the web of photographs that interested me.

Lara by Vivi Ableson

I thought that this photograph was quite effective as the teenage girl is facing the camera, with the backs of two much bigger men on either side. The girl is looking straight at the camera in a very natural way, and is showing some interest in her surroundings, whereas the two mens posture implies that they have been sitting for ages and are totally bored. I quite liked the other photographs in the same sequence "Infantes".

Charlie Watts by Michael Donald

The lighting interested me in this photograph. The figure has a "painterly" impact against the dark background. I felt that the artist must have used photographic lighting to achieve this effect, even though the viewer has the impression that the light is coming from a window on the left. The level of illumination on the shaded side of the face, and the darkness of the background do not quite seem natural.

Not even magic could stop the genocide by David Graham

In this photograph, I liked the blue-green colour and graduated lighting of the background which complements the red-brown jacket of the subject. I feel that this background strongly enlivens the visual qualities of the photograph.

Golfing sisters by Anita Corbin

This photograph seemed to capture the style and character of these two striking ladies beautifully, in an unusual composition.

General points I noted from the exhibition was that almost all the photographs were colour, but often muted colours and pastels. I also noted that there were a significant number of portaits of two people together, such as Lena and Katya by Michal Chelbin (maybe undermining the principle that odd numbers are more photogenic.)