Taylor Wessing DWB:
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait prize is the City of London and National Portrait Gallery's annual portraits prize. It became the Taylor Wessing prize in 2008 when the law firm took up its sponsorship. It is an open competition taking submissions from both amateur and professional photographers from anywhere in the world. There is usually around 6000 submissions which is whittled down to 60 that will be shown in the exhibition, and 4 winners who will take home a cash prize of up to £12,000.
Previous Winners:
2018 Winner: A series of British children who are majorettes in a marching band for their school, photographed on an estate. I think these ones took first place in their year because of how well they are softly lit and exposed despite every frame being quite different but also each image shows the innocences and purity of the subject matter. Everything in these pictures is very soft and quite heartwarming and the use of costume makes for something eye catching/different
2017 Winner; A picture of a Malian refugee who was rescued from an inflatable boat of 118 other refugees sent from Libya across the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain. This shot is very beautifully done, with a clean and crisp two tone backdrop of the sea and the horizon which I think puts emphasis on just how far this man has had to come to seek sanctuary. The way his portrait is framed to have his eyes and ears just above the horizon is very satisfying to me as well as his shirt being off centre. But the most powerful part of this image is his expression and gaze, the look of a man who has seen true hardship and is still struggling to find a better life. I think this is a worthy winner and a poignant statement on current affairs.
Perhaps the most picturesque of the Winners I have picked. This shows a young girl on her first hunting trip to South Africa with her prize of a buck. I find the colour palette in this picture very appealing with there being lots of very natural warm tones and light in the image. The savannah in South Africa needs to introduction as a captivating landscape but the horse, buck and the girl seem to belong together, all of them with red hair and sandy extremities. The pose she holds with the horn in her hand is also very powerful and shows the contrast between her pale skin with the deep red and brown of the horse and the buck.
The Taylor Wessing prize requires photographers to depict people as they are, and give insight into a situation, a niche in one image most of the time. Also the photographer will have some kind of connection or backstory to being placed in the moment for their submission as well. For this reason I want to use introspection as one of the basis for my submission so that the final image will reflect something about myself and those around me. As a preliminary thoughts I think gentrification and class struggle would be good topics, as they are current both today and throughout history, as well as being very significant to my own life growing up in underprivileged parts of London, which are now being subjected to 'regeneration'.
Photographic inspiration:
The following 4 stills are from Shane Meadow's this is England (2006) with Danny Cohen as the director of photography for the film. This is one of the films that changed my life, and had a very profound effect on the way I see art, but also English society. This Film is not only shot and directed masterfully, but it also comments on the state of England from many different angles, particularly Nationalism and Poverty in the North in the 70s. The architecture is quite similar to where I grew up, and the very moody and bleak cinematic style make for a great pairing, while also being something I am quite comfortable in shooting. This film also showed me that it is important for artists to show the reality that they come from, and for art to be a commentary on how you as an artist have struggled and see struggle. I also believe this film to be very topical to my own themes for this project.
David Lynch:
