As paper portrait person it’s always interesting to see what photographers do with their subjects. Rather than hours of ‘eyeballing’ they can watch their subject (s) carefully and then capture just the right moment. In this year’s Taylor Wessing Photographic Prize exhibition there’s real emphasis on the spontaneous and personal.

The winning photographs were of seemingly mundane images taken by Clementine Schneidermann of her neighbour from the series Laundry Day. It shows that you don’t have to do close up portraits in perfect focus but you can capture the essence of a person from a distance and, in this case, during lockdown.

I like a photograph with a sense of narrative and was very taken by this one which shows a grandmother and granddaughter in the family kitchen. The grandmother has dementia and you can tell from her eyes that she is not ‘seeing’ things in the same way. Yet the child is all coiled energy ready to jump up and get on with her life. It’s by Helen Rimell from the series entitled No Longer Her(e).

Above is a portrait by Ed Alcock of Valerie Bacot. This woman had endured years of abuse at the hands of her step-father and then her husband. Her life’s history is one of unbearable pain and suffering. After 24 years of physical and psychological violence she shot and killed her husband and was sentenced to four years in prison, with three years suspended. As she had already spent one year in pre-trial detention she was free from that day onwards.

Here are just a few more of the portraits which caught my eye. It’s a very interesting show and a great opportunity to visit the impressive exhibition space at Cromwell Road in South Kensington. The National Portrait Gallery is currently undergoing a redevelopment and won’t be open until next year.

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2022 at Cromwell Place is on until 18th December 2022