Taylor Wessing 2021

There often seems to be an annual theme to the Taylor Wessing picks, although one is never specified. Maybe it is just the tendency for the brain to find patterns. But if there was one this year it was creating strong portraits using natural light.

Fig 1. Merna Beasley, Kurtijar Woman

There was an interesting amount of space around the indigenous Australian women in David Pritchard’s winning series, almost a reluctance to ennoble them in the usual way. The light is beautiful but it left me rather uncertain, perhaps because I found the pose hard to read – sad, or ominous, or resigned, or …?

 

Fig. 2 David

Katya Llina’s idea of copying old masters in her series Rosemary & Thyme is not a new one photographically, but swapping men for women gives it a fresh stance and works well in my opinion. Again there is a beautiful rich natural light which really enhances the darker skin tones.

Fig 3. My Hands on Dad

Lauren Foster’s self-explanatory image “My Hands on Dad” was perhaps my favourite. Again the wonderful light, a simple idea somehow full of meaning and cleverly managing to represent the photographer-subject-viewer triangle – the enigmatic look of the father makes the image for me.

In contrast I found Toni Ferenc’s In Waiting a rather indulgent and unremarkable series of family portraits, although the image with her partner in looking scared and (frankly) used as a prop is revealing in an unintended way.

Fig 4. Angelica Solomon

I was also uncertain about Aisha Seriki’s series Ungrads, featuring subjects such as Angelica Solomon encating her cancelled graduation ceremony. It somehow seemed to achieve the reverse of it’s celebratory purpose, appearing false (or at least excessively glossy and saturated). The fact that it is a facade seems to double down on this, as if asking if the reality would also have been so.

Fig 5. The Door of Opportunity

Contrast this with the “The Door of Opportunity”, a portrait of Nicole Jameelah Shodunke by Philippa James. The image still pops a little but in a more understated way that questions the viewer – the framing (including the door colour which works well with the skin tones) and the strong look/posture of the subject, as well as the title, are all slightly (but not too) different in a way that works really well.

Fig 6. Untitled

Delali Ayivi also used strong reds and an interesting composition in her untitled image from the series Heimat, a people’s pick third place.

This image was part of several portraiture series based on the number 100. Previous OCA student David Fletcher also did such a series on women local to his village. Jenny Lewis’s variation, which works surprisingly well to hold a disparate selection of portraits together, is to photograph people from age 1 to 100.

Tony Kearney also used natural light for his large-format series Artist(s) – the clever use of punctuation in the tile reflects the fact that the subject are engaged in a project together that connects them in a way that may or may not add meaning to their individual portraits.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Pritchard, D. Merna Beasley, Kurtijar Woman from the series Tribute to Indigenous Stock Women. At: https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/twppp2021/exhibitors/david-prichard#gallery-1 (Accessed 31.5.2022)
2. Llina, K. David from the series Rosemary & Thyme. At: https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/twppp2021/exhibitors/katya-ilina (Accessed 31.5.2022)
3. Foster, L. My Hands on Dad. At: https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/twppp2021/exhibitors/my-hands-on-dad (Accessed 31.5.2022)
4. Seriki, A. Angelica Solomon from the series Ungrads. At: https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/twppp2021/exhibitors/angelica-solomon (Accessed 31.5.2022)
5. James, P. The Door of Opportunity. At: https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/twppp2021/exhibitors/the-door-of-opportunity (Accessed 31.5.2022)
6. Ayivi, D. Untitled from Heimat. At: https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/twppp2021/peoples-pick (Accessed 31.5.2022)

Note: No dates provided for the images, but all must be taken in the year leading up to the prize.