Out of the Shadows: Portraits by the Douglas Brothers
Out of the Shadows: Portraits by the Douglas Brothers
Past display archive
9 August 2017 - 28 January 2018
Room 32, Floor 1
Free
Daniel Day-Lewis
by The Douglas Brothers
platinum print, 1989
NPG P1998
© The Douglas Brothers
The late 1980s saw a new generation of young musicians, actors and novelists receiving critical acclaim for their work. This display presents portraits of these now celebrated cultural figures. A young Damon Albarn is photographed the year before the release of Blur’s debut album Leisure; Kazuo Ishiguro is pictured in the year his novel The Remains of the Day won the Booker Prize for Fiction.
These evocative photographic portraits were taken by the duo Andrew (b.1952) and Stuart Douglas (b.1962). The brothers began collaborating in 1986, producing innovative photographs that drew on historical photographic processes. Using a large format camera and long exposures in low light conditions, the Douglas Brothers produced expressive, psychologically charged portraits. Sitters emerge from dark interiors in images that celebrate the nuances of shadow. Rather than prioritising clarity and description, their portraits evoke mood and atmosphere.
Related portraits
- Salman Rushdie (NPG P2008)
- Daniel Day-Lewis (NPG P1998)
- Peter Gabriel (NPG P2001)
- Sir Kazuo Ishiguro (NPG P2009)
- Alan Bennett (NPG P1999)
- John Le Carré (NPG P2002)
- Damon Albarn (NPG P2003)
- Shaun Ryder (NPG P2010)
- Ian McEwan (NPG P2005)
- Bob Geldof (NPG P2007)
- Sir Kenneth Branagh (NPG P1997)
- Tilda Swinton (NPG P2006)
- Bryan Ferry (NPG P2000)
- Eric Clapton (NPG P2004)