The aspiring artists among us will certainly nod knowingly
at the mention of the BP Portrait Award, an annual showcase open to young
portrait painters worldwide. While we wait with baited breath to see whom
amongst us will enter 2014’s competition a question springs to mind. What is
the National Portrait Gallery up to in the meantime?
Why, it is the photographer’s equivalent! Until February 9th
2014 one can enter the realm of the Taylor Wessing
Photographic Portrait Prize and view firsthand Spencer Murphy’s
winning image KATIE WALSH.
Murphy success is unprecedented: this is the sixth
consecutive year his work has adorned the walls of the NPG. Commissioned for a
poster campaign intended to promote Channel 4’s coverage of the Grand National,
Murphy had approximately thirty minutes for this shot of Katie Walsh. Then
about twenty-four hours of nail-biting anxiety as he waited for this image
captured with a large-format film camera to develop.
For anyone slightly bemused at this image just remember. The
Brits do like a good Horse race, not to mention the betting that goes along
with it. The mud spattered across jockey Walsh’s face and silks is the result
of racing in Kempton Park on a particularly wet and windy day. Also enduring
extreme diets and sporting injuries Walsh is considered the leading female
jockey. Last year she claimed the best Grand National finishing time for a
woman. Ever. Murphy captures her strength of character in this almost intrusive
image… but also something softer. Perhaps it is the way her hair threatens to
fall loose, or the lift of an eyebrow that really forces milling tourists,
married couples and arty students alike to stop. And just look. What was your
reaction? Want to see more? Here’s his website.
This photograph, THE TWINS, by Dorothee Deiss came in at
fourth place. Please forgive the equestrian commentator’s echo. Its time to
take a closer look at the relationship between these Russian-born twins Esther
and Ruth.
They appear here, aged seventy-five, in their bathrobes.
Certainly not something they had expected when they met the pediatric
endocrinologist Deiss at a bat mitzvah earlier this year. Deiss’ gift is clear:
she has coaxed complete strangers from an elder generation to throw decorum out
the window and reveal the tenderness and strength of their sisterhood.
The are
other family portraits on display. This next one is by Giles Price:
Entitled KUMBH MELA PILGRIM – MAMTA DUBEY AND INFANT it
was taken in a pop-up studio at the annual Kumbh Mela pilgrimage in India. What
do you see? A humorous contrast between the mother’s traditional Indian dress
and her child’s western all-in-one… or something more sinister? The combination
of blue backdrop, prominent in Christian iconography, and Madonna and
child-esqu arrangement jars with the sitter’s Hindu beliefs.
Finally, there is one last image that has played on my mind
since visiting this exhibition. Anoush Abrar’s KOFI ANNAN:
Like the winning work this is a commissioned piece. With
only a three-minute window to capture this Abrar gained third place. As the
former Secretary-General of the United Nations the sitter, Kofi Annan, is
high-flying to say the least. So scroll back up to the photograph again. What
do you notice? Annan has his eyes closed.
Abrar has revealed that an initially reluctant Annan ‘didn’t
want to do it’. But through this the photograph has an unparalleled intimacy.
As the viewer we feel that we are intruding on a private moment of a man very
much in the public eye. The simplicity of the black and white radiates
integrity.
If you currently berating yourself at not having booked a
trip to London for this exhibition, don’t fear. All is not lost. The National
Portrait Gallery has this coming up next:
6 February - 1 June 2014, sponsored by HUGO BOSS, National
Portrait Gallery www.npg.org.uk
And after that its back to the BP Portrait Award!
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