Gallery Visit - Taylor Wessing

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2013is a 
unique opportunity to see sixty new portraits by some of the most exciting contemporary photographers from around the world.
Through editorial, advertising and fine art prints, the exhibition explores a range of themes, styles and approaches to the photographic portrait, from formal commissioned 
images of famous faces to more spontaneous and intimate 
moments capturing friends and family.
The gallery has four main prizes for the photography work that has been submitted into the National Portrait Gallery, below is an image of the first prize winner by Spencer Murphy Called Katie Walsh. And below that is a picture of all the top four photographs.

As I walked past the ticket man I was smacked with the first amazing photography which was a large A1 piece, as this was my first time at the taylor wessing prize event, the atmosphere was clean and basic with great big pieces on the wall surrounding me, I didn't know where to look first.

The first prize was awarded to Spencer Murphy for his interesting piece of the jokey rider called Katie Walsh.The 35-year-old grew up in Kent and studied at the Kent Institute of Art and Design before getting a BA in photography at Falmouth College of Arts. I have chosen this image because it is the most important photograph in the room as it got 1st prize. The most important thing and the most impressive thing that makes this image so incredible is the detail that has been captured with the digital camera. There photographer has used this technique with using a normal shutter speed shows the detail and makes the picture look motionless. 

In this image you can see the jokey rider Katie Walsh with a confused emotion. The viewers eye is firstly draw to the eyes of the rider and then taken down the page with the tiny detailed pieces of mud. Then the colours of the clothes are bright and capture your eye. As a jokey rider the way that people identify them is by the colour of their clothes. For example Katie Walsh wears a burgundy top with white stripes. This shows part of her identity and also shows part of her story. This then gets the viewer thinking about what the photographer is trying to say. 

I believe that the environment that this photograph has been taken in was just after a race, as after a jokey race the rider has a lot of emotion on how the race has gone and how they have performed. I believe that this is a really good time to take the image as you can get a lot of emotion in the image and it can mean a lot more than a staged photo shoot. 

Also I feel the the dirt of her face and clothes make the piece so alive because of the way that it shows a realistic feel to the piece and the way it feels like she has just got off the horse.
  

I feel that this gallery has a very good atmosphere and has so great photograph and the best in the country, I also feel that it is a great gallery to visit because if you are an artist like myself you can get useful ideas on the photographs and also add some of the ideas into your own work and outcomes.

Although this is photography and I am doing graphic design for my final piece I still feel that I can take something away with me to my own work. I believe that this piece by Spencer Murphy has shown true emotion well and built up an image that shows the true picture. In order to do this in my own work I think I will need to work with shapes because I want the viewer to know what shape I am showing however still have that interesting part to it and make it something that you cant stop looking at.