London
Saturday was a long day. An hour and a half on the train to London, quarter of an hour on the tube, and finally we were at the National Portrait Gallery.
The first stop was the coffee shop for some refreshments, where on the walls hung a series of portraits by Bassano taken around 1935. These were stunning. Not for the photographic technique, which was excellent (half plate glass negatives), but for the depth of character and feeling captured in the photographs. They really blew me away and they were in the coffee shop! Wow I though, this is going to be a real treat.
There were several exhibitions running. The “Face of Fashion”, which was our primary reason to visit, “The Photographic Portrait Prize” and others, but none of them came close to those few portraits by Bassano taken around 70 years ago.
The Face of Fashion was a large exhibit which gave an opportunity to see some photographs that we had previously see in the likes of POP magazine up close and very, vary, large. Some of the larger photographs (6’ high) were as impressive for their detail as their composition. It is worth visiting, especially if you haven’t already seen the work of these photographers.
The Photographic Portrait Prize has some interesting photographs but ultimately the ones I thought were the best were not those that won, but then, there is no accounting for taste.
All in all there were some outstanding photographs, but the thing that struck me was that some of the others appeared to be bad, boring or both. I guess that different photographs speak to different people in different ways.
Maybe the real test is not whether people love a photograph of Kate Moss in the gallery, but whether people are still looking at it in 70 years and wondering what she was thinking when the photograph was taken, and what was her life like.
I find that for me, the most powerful photographs are those that don’t have tricks, or gimmicks, are not extravagant or clever, but contain a face, captured with depth and feeling and that reach both into the heart of the subject and into the hearts of the viewer and make that connection. This is ultimately where I wish to go with my photography.
But I digress. After the gallery we went for Coffee Cake and Kink. Well, the coffee and cake bit anyway as the Coffee shop/gallery contains many items of an adult nature on display and we had the kids with us, so we sat outside and Lin and I took turns to go look at their basement gallery. The staff were very friendly and the place was cosy. A nice place to visit and the only pace I have found “A” magazine on sale. Fortunately it was a very mild day and we were quite warm sitting at the pavement tables.
After that we went to Covent Garden so the kids could see the street artists and I took a couple of snaps. Finally we went to the British museum to look at the mummies, isn’t it funny how kids like that sort of thing? Then we started home again.
The photograph for this post is neither female, or nude, but is one of the snaps I took at Covent Garden. I hope you don’t mind.
The first stop was the coffee shop for some refreshments, where on the walls hung a series of portraits by Bassano taken around 1935. These were stunning. Not for the photographic technique, which was excellent (half plate glass negatives), but for the depth of character and feeling captured in the photographs. They really blew me away and they were in the coffee shop! Wow I though, this is going to be a real treat.
There were several exhibitions running. The “Face of Fashion”, which was our primary reason to visit, “The Photographic Portrait Prize” and others, but none of them came close to those few portraits by Bassano taken around 70 years ago.
The Face of Fashion was a large exhibit which gave an opportunity to see some photographs that we had previously see in the likes of POP magazine up close and very, vary, large. Some of the larger photographs (6’ high) were as impressive for their detail as their composition. It is worth visiting, especially if you haven’t already seen the work of these photographers.
The Photographic Portrait Prize has some interesting photographs but ultimately the ones I thought were the best were not those that won, but then, there is no accounting for taste.
All in all there were some outstanding photographs, but the thing that struck me was that some of the others appeared to be bad, boring or both. I guess that different photographs speak to different people in different ways.
Maybe the real test is not whether people love a photograph of Kate Moss in the gallery, but whether people are still looking at it in 70 years and wondering what she was thinking when the photograph was taken, and what was her life like.
I find that for me, the most powerful photographs are those that don’t have tricks, or gimmicks, are not extravagant or clever, but contain a face, captured with depth and feeling and that reach both into the heart of the subject and into the hearts of the viewer and make that connection. This is ultimately where I wish to go with my photography.
But I digress. After the gallery we went for Coffee Cake and Kink. Well, the coffee and cake bit anyway as the Coffee shop/gallery contains many items of an adult nature on display and we had the kids with us, so we sat outside and Lin and I took turns to go look at their basement gallery. The staff were very friendly and the place was cosy. A nice place to visit and the only pace I have found “A” magazine on sale. Fortunately it was a very mild day and we were quite warm sitting at the pavement tables.
After that we went to Covent Garden so the kids could see the street artists and I took a couple of snaps. Finally we went to the British museum to look at the mummies, isn’t it funny how kids like that sort of thing? Then we started home again.
The photograph for this post is neither female, or nude, but is one of the snaps I took at Covent Garden. I hope you don’t mind.
posted by Richard at 12:24 PM
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