The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009
Way back in July 2006 I wrote ("National Portrait Gallery I") about a spontaneous visit Isaac & I made to the National Portrait Gallery (here in Washington, DC) where we happened upon an exhibition of 100 or so finalists from the 2005 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. (The competition home page.)
The winners and finalists of the 2009 competition (if I remember accurately, the competition is held every 2 years) were recently announced. I saw the NPG's announcement on Facebook, where they have a nice photo album of winners and the winning portraits. There is a link there to the gallery of portraits by all the finalists; there's also a link for the looking at the competition home page I linked above.
They're worth a look. When we saw the last exhibition (evidently missing the one from the 2007 competition) I thoroughly enjoyed it. As I said then, and it's still true, I love figurative art and portraits are probably my favorite form. To see so much vitality and fresh ideas in portraiture in that one exhibition was energizing. I am looking forward to making the trek downtown to see this latest group of portraits.
I also feel–a little bit–personally involved in this year's competition. Last fall, which is to say in 2008, I suffered a fit of hubris and actually entered the competition. I didn't have great expectations of being a finalist but, with 100 finalists chosen from about 3000 entries, I thought my odds at a little over 3% were much better than odds against funding proposals I've submitted and won with, so I was in.
Alas, my lack of expectations for winning were fully met, but I still feel better for having entered. I still think my entry, this portrait of my friend John that appears below* (or use this link if it doesn't), is an excellent portrait and one of the best photographs I've taken. (And before you mention it, yes, I do see a number of ways to crop it and manipulate its color values, but I finally decided to leave it in this natural, out-of-the-camera state.)
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*John was one of 10 people who went with Isaac & me in June 2007 for a ten-day visit to Tuscany. Our base camp was the Hotel Duomo in Pisa, which we found a delightful place to say (the hotel and Pisa both). We made two day-long excursions, by train, into Florence, where it must have been at least 10°F hotter than the already hot Pisa.
On this day it was just past noon and we were exhausted from the heat when we ducked into this little pizzeria, where it was dark and relatively cool. We had some refreshing drinks and we were starting to perk up a bit because lunch was on its way. I suspect John is simply listening to Isaac (sitting to John's left) tell a story, but his glance and expression look to me as intriguing and enigmatic as the Mona Lisa's.
Although you can't quite see it in this size, the salads that Isaac & I had were being assembled right then by the women taking ingredients from behind the lighted glass cases in the background.