National Portrait Gallery - Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2013 exhibition

Carla Korbes - Patrick Fraser

Beauty Recovery Room 01 - Ji Yeo

The Twins - Dorothee Deiss

Street Gangs in South Africa - Claudio Rasano

Lexi, Lindenhurst, New York - Ilona Szwarc

Untitled (Latvia) #3 - Clare Hewitt

Little Heart - James Stroud

I recently visited the National Portrait Gallery to see the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2013. The work from this years exhibition was probably the best I've seen so far from the Taylor Wessing prize and I found many photographs very inspiring and relevant to my current project. 

I found this visit to the National Portrait Gallery much more beneficial than looking at the photographs on the gallery's website. Each photograph was mounted on a white wall within a large black frame surrounded by a white border, which I felt made the image stand out greatly; The prints were all different sizes and varied between colour, black and white, film and digital. I feel it is very important to see the photographs in the context of which they were intended - on the wall. I find that I am much more interested in photographs when they are printed and hung, rather than on a screen or in a book, and I felt a lot more engaged with the images when seeing them up close accompanied by a written description of the image and artist. 

These images that I have chosen were my favourite from the exhibition; I feel that they all contain the element of 'vulnerability' which is a large theme in my work and something that I find fascinating in photographs. My particular favourite from the show was the portrait of Carla Korbes by Patrick Fraser, showing a young girl standing in the road wearing nothing but a leotard. I adore the cool tones of her skin which compliment the foggy mist in the background of the photograph. 

Carla Korbes - Patrick Fraser

I plan to visit many more exhibitions as a research method and resource for my project, as I feel that seeing photographs first hand is much more inspiring, beneficial and helpful, and also a great way to discover new artists and photographers.