I’m getting great value from my membership of the National Portrait Gallery, here in London, so far this year. With this membership you get unlimited entry into exhibitions which you’d otherwise have to pay. So I’ve been a couple of times to the two photographic exhibitions currently on there - “Hoppé Portraits: Society, Studio and Street” and “Ida Kar: Bohemian Photographer, 1908-1974”.
As the title might suggest, the Hoppé Portraits exhibition contains his Street Photography – mainly from the 1930’s – as well as Studio portraits from the 1910’s to 1930’s. I preferred the Street Photography section, an early form of photojournalism. It’s the type of photography I like to attempt myself. Several photographs from a girl’s Borstal school were on display; beside one, the caption reads that the empty swimming pool would have been cropped out when published. Shame it wasn’t shown as published as well.
I also took the guided tour with the exhibition curator – my 2nd visit to each – the 1st was unaccompanied. These tours can be informative, in that you can get some insight in to which (and why) photos are shown.
The NPG owns the archive of Ida Kar, which includes the negatives, 2 and ¼ square (should that be 6cm square?) or larger. Most of the prints on display are modern prints (some are vintage bromide), made in a darkroom, some with much burning in and dodging (see the photo of Terry Frost, dated 1961, sitting inside a studio, beside an open window.) The portraits looked as if they were made with available light, I couldn’t see much evidence of flash.
I read a review of the Kar Exhibition in both the Observer and Daily Telegraph. Looks like I was at the same exhibition as the reviewer from the Observer. Can’t think where the Daily Telegraph reviewer went to.
This exhibition is in the same Gallery as the recent Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010. Hopefully its entrants and judges spend time in the gallery now – they may learn something about photography and portraits.
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