National Portrait Gallery - Research

I have discovered the National Portrait Gallery on line having never heard of it before.  I have used this site to research photographers.   There are hundreds and hundreds all listed in alphabetical order - so many to look at.

I also discovered when on this site the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 which as the title implies is a compeition to find the "best in contemporary portrait photography".   The finalists for this competition are stunning.  There are 3 which show real emotion and tell a story.  The first (shown above) is of a young girl attending a clinic to deal with obesity; the second (shown below) is of two sisters both skinny, living on the streets and in addiction.  The one sister is such a strong image with her upper torso completely hunched over.  There were 2,400 photographers submitting a total of 6,000 images.    Both images have been copied from www.npg.org.uk