Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2023

Disappointing exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of the shortlisted portrait photographs in this competition.

Although I found some of the stories behind the photos fascinating and moving I’m afraid I found a lot of the images quite dull this year. I’ve sometimes moaned about the emphasis on series of works in the past but this year I felt it might benefit from showing more than one work to fill out the story.

Images that stood out for me tended to be of older people which probably says more about me than the images. I loved Thomas Duffield’s “Grandad Drinking his Tea” which has a Rembrandt quality and the last picture I looked at in the show with a long title by Lucas Troader of an older lady in blue holding a flower who he’d just spotted on the street.

This years featured artist was Hassan Hajjaj whose work I have seen a lot. He works between London and Morocco and does vibrant portrays framed with Moroccan tin cans.

Can I have my usual photographic moan about using reflective glass. Some images were hard to see with lights shining  on then and reflections of the images opposite.

Closes 25 February 2024


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