About face
A compelling and comprehensive guide to the photographic portrait, Face Time is a new book by Philip Prodger. In it, he expertly walks us through a history of the genre, from photography’s invention right up to the present day. He does this with care, consideration and a decent dash of humour to boot.
Currently a Senior Research Scholar at the Yale Center for British Art, his varied career as a curator in a number of prestigious institutions perfectly places him to write the book, maybe none more so than his stint as Head of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Earlier this month, I was able to put my questions about a genre which is described by Philip as ‘one of the most difficult undertakings in art’ to him. Pleasingly, he responded to them with the same warmth, wit and care that is is displayed in abundance throughout his book.
The most obvious question to start with for somebody like Philip is to lay the groundwork and decide exactly what is a ‘portrait’ - aside from a straightforward definition as a picture of a person – the answer may not be as simple as you might expect. Philip says, ‘I think if you asked different curators you would get different answers to this question. But, for me, the difference is capturing something of a person’s identity – not just the way they look, not
