Bettina von Zwehl


Exquisite small display at the Queen’s House in Greenwich of tiny photographs by Bettina von Zwehl.

The girls in these pictures were all born at the start of the Millennium and are in their final year at Thomas Tallis School. The pictures are presented in small oval mounts and square frames in the style of Elizabethan miniatures in response to a quote from Elizabeth I in a letter to her brother Edward VI “For the face I grant I might well blush, but the mind I shall never be ashamed to present”. The works are part of the programme inspired by the Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I.

The small scale of these works make the images seem very concentrated and intense and the quality of the photography is very fine. I must admit I had so hoped they were painted when I first spotted them and was slightly disappointed to find they were photographs however they are still beautiful images of girls full of potential.

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