It’s a bit like paying tax: the NPG annual prize
Someone said to me: "It's a bit like paying tax. You have to do it, but you're not sure what you're getting for it." They were referring to the National Portrait Gallery's annual prize, sponsored by Taylor Wessing.
So, dutifully, as if preparing my annual tax return, a month or so ago (in good time for the deadline), I sat down and started looking over the portraits I had made in the previous 12 months or so. I enjoy this process and I think it’s important to get to know your own archive well. Like every year, I looked at last year's catalogue to divine any clues to success. The red-head thing has almost become a cliche and, as if to spite the mockers, last year the NPG put one on the cover of the 2015 exhibition catalogue. And of course, there was one amongst the group portrait by David Stewart that won first prize. The other clever thing the winner did was tip the wink to the judges. He made sure the judges knew he was a famous photographer, so they had more confidence picking his photo. No-one gets fired for choosing IBM, as they used to say. His winning photograph was a re-enactment of a photo that had been chosen for the exhibition in 2008, so the judges would probably have recognised it. Another way of tipping the judges' wink is to deliver a huge and lavish print, or by having The Queen of England as your subject. Aswell as communicating to the judges that you are already a successful photographer, this last method is also popular with the Gallery because they like to be able to advertise the exhibition with pictures of a few celebs.
My six selections (click to see them) for 2016 don't have any redheads, though they do have a couple of very minor celebs. This year I also enlisted the assistance of the wonderful people at Metroprint to edit, print and deliver the prints. Yes, deliver. I’m banking on the prints being handed over in a classy package - to hopefully tip the wink to the judges.
Chang Gui Duo: not a celeb