Michael Desmond, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2007 Prize.
Michael Desmond charts the path of portraiture, arriving at Julian Opie’s digital realm.
Nikki Toole has travelled the world to photograph skateboarders.
Gift of Michael Desmond 2012
National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
Michael Desmond in conversation with University of Houston professor of philosophy Cynthia Freeland.
Michael Desmond discusses Fred Williams' portraits of friends, artist Clifton Pugh, David Aspden and writer Stephen Murray-Smith, and the stylistic connections between his portraits and landscapes.
Michael Desmond profiles the Australian songwriter and performer Neil Murray and his contribution to Australian music.
Exploring the photographs of Martin Schoeller, Michael Desmond delves into the uneasy pact that exists between celebrity and the camera.
Michael Desmond explores the portraiture of Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.
Michael Desmond introduces some of the ideas behind the exhibition Present Tense: An imagined grammar of portraiture in the digital age.
Technology has been a major influence on art since the invention of the camera, particularly in the field of portraiture.
Michael Desmond examines the career of the eighteenth-century suspected poisoner and portrait artist Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.
Michael Desmond examines the daguerreotype portraits created by American artist Chuck Close.
Blue Mountain, Owner, Trainer, Jockey, James Scobie 1887 by Frederick Woodhouse Snr. is a portrait of James Scobie, well known jockey and eminent horse trainer.
Bruce Petty's animated self portrait captures a life's journey compressed into a few minutes.
Michael Desmond explores the complex portrait of Dr Bob Brown by Harold 'The Kangaroo' Thornton.
Shepard Fairey is best known for his iconic poster Obama/Hope which he made in support of Barack Obama for the 2008 US election.
The first collaborative commission has arrived. It's a self portrait, it's ceramic and it's from Hermannsburg.
Michael Desmond discusses Irving Penn's photographic portrait of Nicole Kidman.
Michael Desmond discusses the iconic picture of two Rugby League players which became known as 'The Gladiators'.
English artist Benjamin Duterrau took up the cause of the Indigenous peoples of Tasmania with his detailed and sympathetic renderings.
Michael Desmond looks at the history of the Vanity Fair magazine in conjunction with the exhibition Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008
Michael Desmond investigates the street art of Shepard Fairey, who was catapulted to fame during the 2008 presidential election with his resonant image of Barack Obama.
Michael Desmond explores the life of ballerina Irina Baranova through the portrait by Australian artist Jenny Sages.
Michael Desmond discusses the portrait of Senator Neville Bonner by Robert Campbell Jnr.
Michael Desmond reveals the origins of composite portraits and their evolution in the pursuit of the ideal.
As a convict Thomas Bock was required to sketch executed murders for science; as a free man, fashionable society portraits.
Photography is the most pervasive and popular medium for portraiture and makes a natural fit with the Gallery, being a natural extension of the Gallery's longstanding commitment to photography as a contemporary portrait medium.
Michael Desmond profiles a handful of the entrants in first National Photographic Portrait Prize and notes emerging themes and categories.
Bringing eminent scientist Frank Fenner and artist Jude Rae together for the National Portrait Gallery commission was like matchmaking.
An extensive selection of portraits by John Brack were on display at the National Portrait Gallery in late 2007.
Michael Desmond explores what makes a portrait subject significant.
In 2006 the National Portrait Gallery acquired a splendid portrait of Victoria's first governor, Lieutenant Governor Charles Joseph La Trobe by Thomas Woolner.
Curator Michael Desmond introduces the exhibition Truth and Likeness, an investigation of the importance of likeness to portraiture.
George Foxhill's self portraits were the subject of a small focus display at the National Portrait Gallery in 2006.
Michael Desmond interviews Ralph Heimans about his portrait of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.
The exhibition Portraits for Posterity celebrates gifts to the Gallery, of purchases made with donated funds, and testifies to the generosity and community spirit of Australians.
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