Visit to the National Portrait Gallery’s one of the exhibition, ‘The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize’, made me realise what portrait is what is exactly for. Before, I plainly thought it was for, for instance family portrait, self portrait etc. I simply thought portrait was to keep the image of a human being and no specific meaning. However, this exhibition made me consider what makes a portrait a portrait.
Every single portrait had a meaning, and it was extremely powerful. For all of the portrait, you had to read the descriptions in order to understand the meaning of the portrait and what the photographer wanted to send its message towards the reader. Out of the all the portrait, I was interested in Jari Salo’s ‘Jari and Tehri’.
Just viewing the portrait you cannot really tell whats going on. At first you think it is one of the maternity photography, but then you consider ‘How come they don’t look happy about it?’ ‘Why is the mother staring at his husband?’ In the description it said that how both were drug addicts. After reading it, everything makes it clear. Both of them are both drug addicts and the reason why she is staring at him was because they were both afraid for the coming future. However, there is a ‘hope’ from the future baby. This portrait is powerful since, it shows how common this issue is. Researching Jari Salo, he tackles modern issues, such as Heroin fathers series, and this is not just a maternity portrait, but it sends of message.
I attempt to come up with a issue, and the first thing that came in mind, was people using phones, but then instead I thought of an issue which always was something people considered throughout the centuries And it was love. I was casually talking to a friend of mine at a cafe near Big Ben, and somehow we ended up talking about love. She recently broke up with her boyfriend, and supposedly her heart is heartbroken, and if I were her, I won’t be able to smile at all. She still did love him, which makes it even more difficult to smile.
In the first three pictures you can see how her expressions are, but in the last one she shows her smile. I found it really ironic, no matter what she was facing she did smile, and the flower makes it even confusing. Just looking at the last photograph, no one can probably tell what she is facing, but with the description, it is possible to say that she is trying to step forward, and that is why she has a smile, and the flower was at the table but shows some kind of ‘hope’, just like the future baby in Jari Salo’s portrait.
Portrait becomes a portrait when you understand what is clearly going on in the photograph.
Photography in London 