National Portrait Gallery | Press releases

The Gallery's Press Office handles enquiries from national and international media. This service enables you to access press releases and download high-resolution images to accompany your stories.

Use of images and department contacts

The Press Office supplies images that are directly promotional to the Gallery's exhibitions, displays and public programme. If you are looking for an image from the Gallery's Collection to accompany a story that is not directly promotional to the Gallery, you will need to contact the National Portrait Gallery's Picture Library on: picturelibrary@npg.org.uk .

For all Press Office enquiries please contact: Neil Evans, Senior Press Officer, Tel 020 7312 2452 or email nevans@npg.org.uk , Eleanor Macnair, Press Officer, Tel 020 7321 6620 or email emacnair@npg.org.uk , or Helen Corcoran, Communications Assistant, Tel 020 7321 6610 or email hcorcoran@npg.org.uk

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In order to access press images you need to register your details with us. You will then be able to download images.

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TAYLOR WESSING PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PRIZE 2008 - PORTRAIT INSPIRED BY ‘DREAM OF QUINTUPLETS BIRTH’ WINS TOP PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE (6 Nov 2008 - 15 Feb 2009)
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The 2008 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize has been won by Lottie Davies, 37, for her portrait which was inspired by her friend Caroline’s nightmare that she gave birth to quintuplets. Drawing on classical imagery of the Madonna and Child, Davies also took inspiration from several visits to the National Gallery, replicating the darkness and colours found in Caravaggio and Titian to portray the ‘calm and serenity of motherhood, as well as the feeling of imprisonment.’ Rather than asking Caroline to pose, she used a model, Alicia Clarke, to allow ‘more freedom to interpret the story, unclouded by the representational aspects of portraiture.‘ The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition runs from 6 November 2008 – 15 February 2008 at the National Portrait Gallery, London. The exhibition will tour to the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle from 4 April –30 June 2009.

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CHAMPIONS: Portraits by Anderson & Low to benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation (30 Oct 2008 - 18 Jan 2009)
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A new display of over 30 previously unseen nude portraits of leading international sportsmen and women by acclaimed photographers Anderson & Low opens at the National Portrait Gallery on 30 October 2008. Several years in the making and shot over three continents, this project was conceived by the photographers to support the Elton John Aids Foundation in raising awareness of the global issue of HIV/AIDS.

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ANNIE LEIBOVITZ: A PHOTOGRAPHER’S LIFE, 1990-2005 (16 Oct 2008 - 1 Feb 2009)
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A new exhibition opening at the National Portrait Gallery in October, Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990–2005, will draw together for the first time the well-known assignments and rarely-seen personal work of one of the world’s best-known portrait photographers. With over 150 photographs, Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990–2005 shows iconic images of famous public figures together with personal photographs of her family and close friends. Arranged chronologically, they project a unified narrative of the artist’s private life against the backdrop of her public image. ‘I don't have two lives,’ Leibovitz says. ‘This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it.’

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BERN SCHWARTZ: PORTRAITS OF THE 1970s (11 Jul 2008 - 4 Jan 2009)
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A new display at the National Portrait Gallery will show a selection of one of the biggest-ever gifts to the Gallery, 140 of the most iconic photographs of famous 20th century British subjects. The photographs are by Bern Schwartz (1914-1978), a Californian who turned to photography in his early sixties after a successful career in business. Taken between 1975 and 1978 they include portraits of Margaret Thatcher, Rudolf Nureyev, John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft, Lord Denning, the Prince of Wales, A J Ayer, Tony Benn, Zandra Rhodes and Twiggy.

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ANNIGONI’S PORTRAIT OF PRINCESS MARGARET GOES ON DISPLAY AT THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
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A large rarely-seen 1957 portrait of the Queen’s sister, the late HRH The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, by the Italian artist Pietro Annigoni is displayed at the National Portrait Gallery from today. It is the first time the portrait - which hung in the Princess’s private apartments in Kensington Palace - can be seen in public since it was auctioned among the sale of items of the Princess’s estate, at Christie’s in 2006. The Princess, who was described by the artist as being ‘enveloped in an aura of sensuality’, is shown in an English garden setting that alludes to her second name Rose, and not her royal status. Its original frame has been hand-painted with a leaf design, possibly by Annigoni himself.

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ZAHA HADID’S PORTRAIT IN CHANGING COLOURS SHOWN AT NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
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A groundbreaking constantly changing new portrait of a world-famous architect by one of Britain’s most influential artists goes on display at the National Portrait Gallery today. The portrait of Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-born architect of the London 2012 Olympic Aquatics Centre, is the first work by Michael Craig-Martin, one of the key figures in British contemporary art, to be commissioned by the Gallery.

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