David Graham, Not Even Magic Stopped the Genocide, from the series Rwandan Street children© David Graham
"There were a huge number of entries – I think there were more than 6,000. The panel gets a surprisingly short amount of time to go through it all, but it’s a very lively and discursive event.
They reduce it to about 2,000 before they hammer out which ones are going to be selected for the exhibition and which ones are going to be award winners.
If you have experience of the exhibition, you’re very influenced by the hang, which is difficult because there are so many different portraits and photographers, so you need a very sensitive hang to make it work. As you go in, the photographs can speak to each other across the walls.
David Graham – Not Even Magic Stopped the Genocide
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I really thought ‘this holds me’. It matters in all sorts of ways, not only because of the quality and the aesthetics of the image, but also the story which spins out from it.
It’s a portrait of a young Rwandan whose father was killed during the genocide there. He’s wearing a tracksuit top and he’s hooded. His hands are holding each other and he’s almost embracing a Harry Potter book. He’s wearing a watch which looks like a Disney watch to me.
His engagement stands out, he’s looking at you and there’s a sensitivity, a quietude to it. I always look at hands in a portrait because they always tell part of a story.
It’s set against a dark, green-black background, so you get no more information than a caption and the sitter. You can just see the collar of his shirt. The story matters a lot, so it’s a use of a portrait in a way that I really respond to, and it’s a very beautifully crafted one.
Ben Wisely, Pencil, from the series Formiddable© Ben Wisely
Then in the corner there’s the Ben Wisely nude from the series Formiddable. It’s a big woman and it’s cropped on her fingertips and under her belly, on a very reduced palette.
She’s not looking at you, she’s looking sideways. It’s utterly comfortable in this presentation of her body. These are two powerful portraits speaking to each other.
I went around the whole room again and was very aware of some very beautiful works, but it was that dynamic that interested me."
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 exhibition was on show at the National Portrait Gallery until February 20 2011.
