An Olympic cyclist, a Rwandan genocide victim, a care worker, migrant workers, the winner of a prison beauty pageant in Brazil and a mortuary assistant are some of the many subjects of this year’s Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize. Seven judges narrowed down over 6300 images submitted by 2451 photographers – emerging young photographers, established professionals, students and amateurs – to present sixty photos in this exhibition.
Sandy Nairne, the director of the National Portrait Gallery and one of the seven judges said of the judging process, ‘The pose, posture, expression, clothing or appearance of the subject may play a part, but whatever the photographic scenario or style, the most important consideration is the creative work of the photographer. The crucially inventive choices of lighting and camera position, the angle and orientation of the shot, and the saturation and colour range of the prints are all critical in determining which portraits stand out and catch the judges’ attention.’
The exhibition claims to present the very best in contemporary portrait photography and it certainly does a good job of meeting that claim. Images taken from the personal projects of their photographers hang alongside editorial and advertising images. You will be hard pressed to find a theme, style and approach to photographic portraiture that is not explored in the exhibition space and that doesn’t appeal to you. Some images capture your attention immediately, perhaps because of their use of lighting and colour, whilst others leave you with a strong sense of the setting in which the subject is placed, as well as a sense of the subject’s emotions too. We are drawn into people’s homes, their professions and their daily routines.
Many of the photographs have an enduring intensity to them. One of my personal picks from the selection on display is ‘Arif ‘Tokai’ (Arif ‘the Collector’)’ by Amy Helene Johansson. It is a beautifully bleak portrait of a young Bangladeshi boy who makes money by collecting re-saleable rubbish. Johansson has tenderly captured him standing by the railway tracks of the station in a town called Tongi, awaiting custom for his business. The train tracks extend into a dizzying mist in the background, and far from this, alongside the presence of an old man and a dark tree detracting from Arif, the central subject, they add to the sorrowful atmosphere of the portrait.
Other personal choices of mine are Damián Ucieda Cortes’s beautifully composed black and white portrait of a girl gymnastically posed semi-nude in a woodland setting, and Michal Chelbin’s image of a young man in juvenile prison, which is full of awkward angles that effectively convey the awkwardness of photographing a convicted murderer.
Photography is a highly intriguing art form. To a certain degree, one must wonder where the balance lies between the subject matter and the photographer doing the ‘work’ for the photograph. Having said that, many of the photographs that capture the mundane and the everyday do stand shoulder to shoulder with far more intense images, such as a haunting one of a man born with birth defects as a direct result of the Vietnam war. Each photograph has its own specific allure.
I won’t pass judgement about whether or not the winners of the competition are deserved or not. I shall leave that to you. In my eyes this is more than a competition. It is a showcase and platform for the exciting work produced by working portrait photographers today. Centrally located in the capital and with free admission, the exhibition is well worth a visit for both Londoners and non-Londoners alike.
Four stars.
The ‘Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2009′ is on at the National Portrait Gallery, London until 14th February 2010.
Admission is free.
Photo: Sean Raggett – ‘Queen’s Wood’ © Sean Raggett.
