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Carys Lewis our Archivist

Meet Carys Lewis this #AskAnArchivistDay

This #AskAnArchivistDay, we sat down with Archivist Carys Lewis, who works at The Heinz Archive & Library here at the Gallery. Alongside archives of the history of our Collection, we’re proud to hold archives relating to British portrait artists, art historians of portraiture and significant portrait collections. Carys gave us a sneak peek at what you’d find in the records and also shared with us what a day’s like in the archive…

By National Portrait Gallery,

13 August 2021

Filmmakers Turab Shah and Arwa Aburawa

From the ground up: Meet the filmmakers

This month we opened our new exhibition in Brent, People Powered: From the ground up, in partnership with Brent Museum and Archives. This free exhibition delves into the lives of those who have worked at Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena or enjoyed career defining moments there. Featuring newly acquired portraits to our Collection of Marcus Rashford, Alex Scott and Freddie Mercury, the exhibition also includes a film co-produced by Other Cinemas and young people in Brent that tells grassroots stories from Wembley. In celebration of the exhibition opening, we sat down with Turab Shah and Arwa Aburawa, the filmmakers behind Other Cinemas, to find out more about the project. …

By National Portrait Gallery,

28 September 2021

John Hothersall Pinder by Samuel Cousins, after Sir William Boxall

Peter Brathwaite on John Hothersall Pinder

In July 2020, we spoke to Opera Singer and broadcaster, Peter Brathwaite, about his pioneering Rediscovering Black Portraiture series. Since then, Peter has been researching his family history and got back in touch earlier this year to let us know that he’d discovered a number of connections to a portrait held in our archive. We caught up with Peter to find out more about his research…

By National Portrait Gallery,

09 August 2021

Women at an anti-racist demo, East London 1983 © Phil Maxwell

Eliza Islam - Audio Portraits

Citizen Researcher Eliza Islam writes about her research for the Citizen UK project, which focuses on student movements in support of a Bangladeshi state (formerly East Pakistan) in the 1970s and the experiences of Bangladeshis in Tower Hamlets…

By National Portrait Gallery,

09 August 2021

Joanna in PPE, portrait by Harry Hall

In Conversation With Sports Photographer Harry George Hall

It’s been an incredible month of sport, with Wimbledon, the EUROs and the Olympics all converging. We sat down with prolific sports photographer Harry George Hall to find out more about his experience of capturing sporting icons, which includes everyone from Mo Farah to Raheem Sterling…

By National Portrait Gallery,

29 July 2021

'Mrs Richard Hart-Davis as Ariel' by Madame Yevonde, Vivex colour print, 1935 NPG X11660

Curator's Choice - Sabina Jaskot-Gill's Top Photographs

Photography curator Sabina Jaskot-Gill delves into the Collection to select treasures from the medium’s first century, made by early pioneer photographers. …

By National Portrait Gallery,