Truthful, youthful shots
Children often make the most compelling subjects in photography competitions; with their unnerving gaze, they can easily steal the show. And certainly the judges for the inaugural Schweppes portrait award at the National Portrait Gallery seem to think so.
The £15,000 winning image by Roben Antoniewicz is an arresting picture of his two-year-old granddaughter in a lilac party dress taken against a stark white backdrop. It's an angelic image which reaches back to the Victorian child portrait, though with none of its formality.
Victor Albrow's runner-up picture, taken in a studio, is more consciously designed. Lachie And Callum shows twin boys at a table, mirroring each other's gestures.
The boys' red hair and identical yellow shirts echo the colours of the vertiginous 1960s wallpaper which dominates the picture and whose repeating geometric pattern is reflected in the polished table.
The Deloitte prize for a portrait photographer under 25 is also awarded for a child portrait, this time an image of three siblings taken by 19-year-old David Yeo. The cropped black and white picture shows a young girl framed by her two older brothers in an arresting close-up.
Among other selected images, Elizabeth Zeschin's quarter-length portrait of a pre-adolescent girl stands out for its striking resemblance to the work of Rineke Dijkstra, a photographer well known for her series of awkward pre-pubescent females.
Until Feb 15, National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place WC2, daily 10am to 6pm (Thu and Fri to 9pm), free.
Tel: 020 7306 0055. Tube: Leicester Square/Charing Cross
