When a portrait communicates determination and individuality as boldly as these do, it has the potential to become an iconic image. For the Gallery’s 20th birthday this display brings together a group contemporary photographic portraits of inspiring women and men.
In ancient Greece an eikōn was a likeness of an exemplar, someone whose labours and deeds inspired our own striving. Later, medieval icon paintings depicted saints and deities.
Two-thirds of the Gallery’s 2,600 portraits are photographs. Since its invention by French scientist Nicéphore Niépce two centuries ago, photography has become the dominant portrait medium of our time.
