Yesterday I spent the day visiting photography exhibitions in London in-between fighting my way through the crowds trying to find a ‘boxing day bargain’. I don’t know how successful they were but there were plenty of people swinging yellow Selfridges bags and white paper designer bags whilst bustling about all in a hurry. Me, I wandered about and found my way to the Millenium Bridge and admired the view of my favorite gallery in London. The Tate Modern. My plan was to see the exhibition of the Canadian photographer Jeff Wall and maybe catch a quick look at the Unilever series – Rachel Witeread whilst I was there. The Jeff Wall show was brilliant. It far exceeded my expectations and I was well pleased that I managed to get there before it ended…

Next I headed back into town to see the 60 finalists of the Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize 2005 at the National Portrait Gallery. Out of over 5000 images there were four prizes awarded with 1st prize going to an aussie, Shara Henderson. There were some brilliant entries and I have to say it made me rethink my attitude to colour – it was a serious colour photo day. The few images I saw in black and white from both the Schweppes exhibition and the Jeff Wall exhibition were not particularly impressive alongside the colour counterparts. Perhaps it was my mood, perhaps it was the images themselves but there you go…. colour looked exceptionally good.

There was one exception however, also at the National Portrait Gallery there was an exhibition of Cornel Lucas, mainly of images he took whilst working as a portraitist for the British film studios in the 40s and 50s. Images of the likes of Lauren Bacall, Dirk Bogarde and Brigitte Bardot – all iconic in status, and all fantastic in black and white.

It was a great day. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, it was cold out but toasty in the galleries and I was allowed to wander about in a world of my own, all on my own.