The National Portrait Gallery, London
- When taking a portrait, it is
more important to think about the viewer more than the sitter.
- For the Olympic assignment, the
photographs are for display at National Portait Gallery. In this environment,
it was important for the photographs to be accessible beautiful images. The client was not looking for “art”.
- His work is strongly influenced
by Edward Weston, in particular, NK is happy to work with a variety of subects.
In his view, the photographs are the same thing whatever the subject.
- The printed image is his
principal aim. He prints his own photos, making print after print until he is
satisfied with the result.
- Whilst he uses digital, he likes film as it is not possible to know that the best moment had been caught on film.
This means that he keeps trying to get the perfect shot. Using film, he
stays nervous longer and this means the quality of the result can be better
than digital.
In one series of portraits, the subjects are shown against a plain white background and there is a small circular shadow which gives the impression that the subjects are suspended in mid air. I assumed that he had added the shadows to somewhat disconcert the viewer, in a similar way to his portraits of Obama's people. It was quite a surprise when I visited the exhibition at the National Portait Gallery to find these portraits displayed as cut-outs suspended in front of the Gallery's plain walls. He clearly enjoys the novelty of being a little bit different.
There were also portraits of people involved in London 2012 exhibited in the Gallery by a range of other photographers. I particularly liked the style of portraits by Anderson and Low, Jillian Edelstein. On the other hand, I was less attracted by the group portraits by Brian Griffiths which seemed slightly too contrived.
In one series of portraits, the subjects are shown against a plain white background and there is a small circular shadow which gives the impression that the subjects are suspended in mid air. I assumed that he had added the shadows to somewhat disconcert the viewer, in a similar way to his portraits of Obama's people. It was quite a surprise when I visited the exhibition at the National Portait Gallery to find these portraits displayed as cut-outs suspended in front of the Gallery's plain walls. He clearly enjoys the novelty of being a little bit different.
There were also portraits of people involved in London 2012 exhibited in the Gallery by a range of other photographers. I particularly liked the style of portraits by Anderson and Low, Jillian Edelstein. On the other hand, I was less attracted by the group portraits by Brian Griffiths which seemed slightly too contrived.
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