The Guardian’s headline “Photos of lockdown mundanity win £15,000 Taylor Wessing prize” adequately sums up this year’s competition. The judges seemed to have focused on a snapshot aesthetic in 2022, with the first prize featuring an elderly name taken through a window of a neighbouring garden during lockdown, and the third prize a flash shot of a boy holding a rabbit in an indoor setting. While I did not like these candid entries, I started the photography degree in order to understand them (I am aware that others, including the judges and my wife, appreciate them).
In an interview the winning artist talks about trying a new approach to portraiture (hiding the face) while isolating and obsessively capturing the micro-details played out on an uneventful stage. “I wanted to create a body of work that could live outside the current health context and hopefully speak to people in five, ten, twenty years” (Clémentine Schneidermann, Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2022:9). Time will therefore tell if this has been achieved, although I feel these could have been taken on any summer day in lockdown or not. They certainly were not picked to advertise the show – instead the NPG used one of the second prize and far more striking images by visual poet Haneem Christian of two transfeminine artists from Cape Town. In fact Christian’s project could not have been more different from Schneidermann’s, with the latter representing the everyday and the former queerness. There is, however, also nuance in Christian’s work and the second portrait of Naeem Davis, whom they describe as “one of my most divine reflections embodied” (Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2022:11) is particularly tender.
Perhaps a better portrait of lockdown was Chris Budgeon’s image of Orlando and Wilson (see Fig. 1 below). two lifelong friends reunited after lockdown interacting with each other over their phones even though they are sat next to each other. The inkjet print here seemed particularly well executed to show the coloured glow of the lights to the best effect.
One of the most interesting images was a portrait of Valérie Bacot by Ed Alcock, days before she was sentenced for the murder of her step-father, who abused her from the age of 12, married her and forced her into prostitution. The context here, however, is absolutely key to reading the image – the viewer is perhaps lead to see an acceptance of a cruel world on the noble face of a brave survivor…?
The best portrait for me was by Stephen Burridge (see Fig.2 above). While his context tells us this image is from a socio-political documentary series Homegrown “about exploring communities within the UK that express the rich diversity and culture spectrums on our streets” (Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2022:35), the photograph stands easily on its own – the intertwining of the girls in shawl (echoed by their headscarfs) expresses their friendship and the tangle of limbs adds a surreal (almost comic) element enhanced by the off-kilter background, as does the direction of the straw which combined with 2D compression suggests one girl is sipping the other’s drink. The positioning of the phone suggests they are not just watching but recording the viewer/photographer as well. This is a complex image that is beautifully lit.
I also enjoyed the Igor Sapina’s portrait of his elderly neighbour Piroska underneath a painting of her younger self as a model. Again there is just a hint of respectful humour in the image which gives it a spark, set of by the somewhat bemused expression on the old lady’s face.
There were also some excellent monochrome portraits, including an autoportrait of Guatemalan refugee Stephanie Solano with photographer Adam Ferguson – an intelligent way of dealing with the question of how to respectfully picture people in this situation. Control has been offered back to the subject, who faces the camera with a strong, direct gaze.
Carmen Ballvé spent 2 decades gaining the trust of the Batey Lanon community in the Dominican Republic. Her monochrome image of Mayely staring down the camera was further enhanced for me by the use of contrast and the shape of the very white dress against the very dark skin.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- Budgeon, C. (2022) Orlando and Wilson. At: https://www.chrisbudgeon.com/PROJECTS/People/ (Accessed 14.11.2022)
- Burridge, S. (2022) Untitled from Homegrown. At: https://stephenburridge.com/portfolio-2/ (Accessed 14.11.2022)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2022 At: https://qrcgcustomers.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/account14613720/32083779_1.pdf?0.5291929074333179 (Accessed 14.11.2022)
- Khomami, N. (2022) Photos of lockdown mundanity win £15,000 Taylor Wessing prize. At: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/oct/25/photos-of-lockdown-mundanity-win-15000-taylor-wessing-prize (Accessed 14.11.2022)
Level 3.1 Learning Log 