The National Gallery of Australia exhibition showcases the late British artist’s mastery of intimate detail and talent for connection.
Articles on Portraits
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In Opie’s photographs, the constraints and limitations of the portrait are part of its potential.
The University of Colorado Law School had never done a history of its Black students – until now.
His photographs reveal what immigrants carry with them: resilience, creativity and cultural knowledge.
From Jason Phu’s portrait of Hugo Weaving, brimming with humour and energy, to Mostafa Azimitabar’s fierce portrait of Grace Tame, the 2025 winners are anyone’s guess.
Portraits of enslaved people from the 19th century are unusual. But a Connecticut artist named William H. Townsend decided to draw the rebels as they stood trial, leaving behind an invaluable record.
A new portrait of NRL star Wally Lewis brings home the consequences of brain trauma in ways traditional science communication struggles to achieve.
Even though Bernal is known as the father of Chicano photography, his work has long been overlooked. Now he’s the subject of a new exhibition at the University of Arizona.
British monarchs have grappled with issues of representation, accuracy and flattery in portraits since the Middle Ages.
Vincent Namatjira, a Western Arrernte artist, is Albert Namatjira’s great-grandson. His genre is portraiture, but with a twist: loaded with satire and post-colonial politics.
The portraits hold up a mirror to a society that has underappreciated the Windrush generation for far too long.
Yevonde was a celebrated portraitist, innovative colourist and advocate for women in the profession. In short, a pioneer.
In a 1959 essay, Capote noted how Avedon seemed to capture ‘every hard-earned crow’s foot’ in his subjects – perhaps not realizing that he would one day be photographed by that same unvarnished gaze.
How the artist found endless variety in the daily view from his bed, cycling through the seasons with kaleidoscopes of light, colour, texture, form and space.
As a migrant family, participating in this ritual made us feel and appear more Australian, if only to ourselves.
Coming together for a portrait creates playful opportunities for social interactions among strangers.
Young queer people growing up in rural areas don’t necessarily need to flee their communities to find safety and acceptance.
The camera has long been used to defy a media landscape steeped in negative portrayals of Black families.
Leak will be the first official portrait painter of a former Prime Minister who has not been an Archibald finalist.
Most years, the Archibald exhibition is worth viewing as an amusing exercise in social history. This year it is worth seeing for the art.
Top contributors
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Joanna Mendelssohn is a Friend of The Conversation.Honorary Senior Fellow, School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne
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Associate Professor Visual Communication, University of Technology Sydney
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Chief Curator, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
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Lecturer in Education, University of Sheffield
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Associate Professor of History, Northwest Missouri State University
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Emeritus Professor of the History of Art, University of Oxford
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Research Fellow in History of Art, University of Cambridge
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Professor of History, Clark University
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Professor, Adjunct Research Fellow, School of Health Science, Swinburne University of Technology
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Research Fellow, UQ School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, The University of Queensland
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Historian of Global Slavery, Smithsonian Institution
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PhD Candidate, Visual Culture, University of Westminster
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Lecturer in the Arts of Africa, University of Edinburgh
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Assistant Teaching Professor, Law School, University of Colorado Boulder
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Senior Lecturer in Visual Culture, Sheffield Hallam University