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Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2009

November 6, 2009

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February 14, 2010

Following the success of last year’s competition, the 2009 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize showcases the very best in contemporary portrait photography once again. This year’s awards attracted over 2,400 photographers and 6,300 images with only 60 of those making it to the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

Through editorial, advertising and fine art images, the mix of international entrants have explored a range of themes, styles and approaches to the contemporary photographic portrait, from formal commissioned portraits to more spontaneous and intimate moments capturing friends and family. Featuring many images previously unexhibited, the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2009 represents a unique opportunity to see some of the most exciting contemporary portrait photographers working today.

Tags: exhibitions, london, photography exhibition, taylor wessing portraits

Twiggy: A Life in Photographs

September 19, 2009

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March 21, 2010

Twiggy’s 60th birthday is celebrated by the National Portrait Gallery with the launch of a new exhibition and the publication of a photographic biography of her life. One of the best-known models of all time and arguably the first supermodel, Twiggy has worked with the world’s leading photographers and a some of the most iconic images will be on show at the Gallery.

Twiggy says, ‘Over my career I’ve had the privilege of working with many great photographers. I’m very excited to see so many of these portraits coming together at the National Portrait Gallery and in my new book. It’s really interesting to see how fashion photography and portraiture have evolved throughout my career. I hope that this display and book will give people the opportunity to see these pictures that have captured definitive moments in my career. ‘

Twiggy: A Life in Photographs is now on at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Tags: Barry Lategan, exhibitions, london, photography exhibition, Solve Sundsbo, Twiggy Exhibition

André Kertész On Reading

July 17, 2009

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October 4, 2009

André Kertész is known for his groundbreaking contributions to photographic composition and by his efforts in establishing and developing the photo essay. In the early years of his lengthy career, his then-unorthodox camera angles, and his unwillingness to compromise his personal photographic style, prevented his work from gaining wider recognition. He is recognized today as one of the seminal figures of photojournalism.

Over the course of his career, Kertész captured readers of all ages in various locations – on rooftops and balconies, in parks, on crowded streets, at train stations, in libraries – creating a poetic study of the act of reading. The photographs range from abstract formal compositions to playful, often humorous observations, a signature style of Kertész’s work.

On Reading remained a constant fascination. At this moment when digital technologies might render the printed page obsolete, On Reading is a timely, humorous and nostalgic reminder of the importance of the book and the culture of reading.

Exhibition At London’s Photographers Gallery

Tags: andre kertesz, exhibitions, london, photography exhibition

Satellites: A Photographic Journey Through the Unknown Republics of Eastern Europe

June 24, 2009

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August 9, 2009

Norwiegan photographer Jonas Bendiksen explores regions of the former Soviet Union in this exhibition accompanying his new book of the same name. On display at the Sir John Soane-designed PM Gallery & House in Ealing, the images focus on former communist areas often overlooked by photo-journalism, such as Transdniester and Abkhazia. Bendiksen’s lens also captures spacecraft crash zones between Russia and Kazakhstan, the Jewish Autonomous Region of Far Eastern Russia and an unrecognised country on the Black Sea.

See directions to the gallery.

Tags: exhibitions, london, photography exhibition

Gerhard Richter Portraits Exhibition

February 26, 2009

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May 31, 2009

New exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

Richter’s use of his own private photographs heralded, from the late 1970s, a body of portraits connected with his inner circle of family and close friends. Such intimate subjects and personal themes seem, at first, to stand in stark contrast to the impersonal nature of his early work but Richter’s recent portraits continue to explore the preoccupations that have been present from the outset, being both open to the viewer’s gaze, yet impenetrable. Though personal, there is a sense that these portraits remain, as Richter has observed, a ’semblance’.

Tags: exhibitions, gerhard richter portraits, london, photography exhibition

Root Ginger: A Study of red hair by Photographer Jenny Wicks

February 17, 2009

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March 8, 2009

Ridiculed, coveted, derided, loved; a study and celebration of red hair comes to the Idea Generation exhibition gallery in London.

Idea Generation Gallery is pleased to present selected works from the book Root Ginger: A Study of Red Hair by the photographer Jenny Wicks. An exhibition, book and film project, Root Ginger is a tribute to a trait that is most common in Scotland and Ireland but is scattered around the world.

Gallery Opening times are: Monday - Friday 10am - 6pm, Saturday & Sunday 12 - 5pm.

Idea Generation Gallery, 11 Chance St, London. E2 7JB.

Tags: exhibitions, london, photography exhibition, root ginger

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2008

November 6, 2008

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February 15, 2009

UPDATE: 2009 EXHIBITION NOW ON

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2008 showcases the work of the most talented emerging young photographers, photography students and gifted amateurs alongside that of established professionals.

This year’s competition attracted over 2,500 photographers who together submitted more than 6,700 images. The resulting exhibition of sixty works, includes the four prize-winners and the winner of the Godfrey Argent Award, which this year goes to the photographer who submitted the best portrait in black and white.

Through editorial, advertising and fine art images, the mix of international entrants have explored a range of themes, styles and approaches to the contemporary photographic portrait, from formal commissioned portraits to more spontaneous and intimate moments capturing friends and family.

Featuring many images previously unpublished, the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2008 represents a unique opportunity to see some of the most exciting contemporary portrait photographers working today.

Now on at the National Portrait Gallery.

Tags: exhibitions, london

Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition

October 31, 2008

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April 26, 2009

See the winning images of this year’s competition in the 2008 Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition online or at the Natural History Museum in London. The competition, run by the museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine, attracted more than 32,000 entries from 82 countries.

The picture above is by Yongkang Zhu: ‘To photograph the swans in their environment meant I had to endure the same conditions - snowstorms and high winds that roll the snow across the flat land in great waves. The storm was so bitter I wished I could have escaped along with the swans.’ Every winter, huge flocks of whooper swans migrate from the far north of Europe and Asia to warmer lowlands. The Rongcheng Swan Lake nature reserve in eastern China is a major overwintering sanctuary for whooper swans. But even here, when the fresh water freezes, the birds are forced to feed in the fields, digging through the snow for grass. Yongkangused Canon EOS 20D + Sigma 300-800mm f5.6 lens at 300mm; 1/1250 sec at f6.3; ISO 200; tripod.

Tags: exhibitions, london

Soho Nights

December 6, 2008

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February 8, 2009

This project celebrates the energy and excitement of the Soho area in London after-dark. Bringing together two archives, the iconic British magazine Picture Post and the film maker Ken Russell’s series at the legendary Cat’s Whiskers coffee bar.

Soho frequently featured in Picture Post. With its theatre, cabaret, cafés and clubs it was an exciting centre for entertainment, art and youth culture. Stories such as The Making of a Glamour Girl by Tim Gidal and Kurt Hutton, Excitement in the Making by Thurston Hopkins and Blue Heaven in the Basement by Slim Hewitt caught the pace and excitement of Soho night-life.

The photographs of Ken Russell (UK, b.1927) captured the birth of the ‘hand jive’ at the Cat’s Whiskers coffee bar in 1956. This venue attracted such big crowds that there was no room to move and so hand gestures replaced conventional dancing. The atmospheric scenes these photographs portray give us a glimpse of night-time Soho as it once was.

Now on at the Photographers’ Gallery.

Tags: exhibitions, london

London Through A Lens

September 1, 2008

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January 30, 2009

The photographs in this exhibition have two things in common: they were all taken in London over the past century or so, and they all come from the vast archives of Getty Images. But that’s where the similarities end.

This isn’t a showcase of tourist hotspots or a roll-call of famous Londoners or even a chronological survey of photography in the capital. Some well-known names crop up, both in front of and behind the camera: the Beatles, the Kray brothers, Thurston Hopkins, Terry Fincher and Terry O’Neill. And some famous events: the Battle of Cable Street in 1936, the poll tax riots in 1990. Some iconic structures and places appear too: the Daily Express building, Trellick Tower, Eros, Petticoat Lane Market.

But the great and the good, and the landmarks of history and architecture are matched by anonymous Londoners doing everyday things. Routemasters and riots, funfairs and football crowds, buskers and bombs, pop stars and policemen, traffic and towers, squatters and stilt walkers: all take a bow. And quite a few animals get a look in too: sheep, hounds, deer, monkeys and even an elephant.

Some pictures depict a recognisably modern city; some seem to come from another lifetime. Some people are posing for the photographer, but many are oblivious to the camera’s eye. The sources of the images are equally varied too – Fleet Street newspapers, commercial photography agencies, private collections, photojournalism magazines (notably the ground-breaking Picture Post) – and are a tribute to the richness and diversity of Getty Images’ holdings.

The result is a portrait of London, but an idiosyncratic and inevitably incomplete one, where celebration and protest, the individual and the crowd, the momentous and the mundane all have their place. We hope this exhibition is entertaining and surprising, and reveals how much the capital has changed, and how much it hasn’t. Most of all, we hope that it captures something of the endless variety and interest of life in London.

Now on at Getty Images Gallery.

Tags: exhibitions, london