The fourth iteration of the National Portrait Gallery’s exciting “Portraiture Now” series has arrived. “Recognize!”, the hip-hop-centric prior exhibit, was a tough act to follow, and the gallery has wisely met the challenge by going another direction entirely. The focus this time is on portraits by a half-dozen celebrated fine-art photographers who continue to take on editorial work for general-interest publications such as the New York Times Magazine and GQ.
Though sitters such as Angelina Jolie or President-elect Barack Obama are instantly recognizable, the shooters emerge as the show’s stars. New Yorker staff photographer Martin Schoeller’s portraits of Obama and his rival, Sen. John McCain, capture these public men in private moods that seem fresh to us even after watching them both on television each night for two years. But Kay Grannan’s and Alec Soth’s remarkably perceptive photos of “real” (anonymous) Americans are the ones that will haunt you.
If you go
“Portraiture Now: Feature Photography”
Where: National Portrait Gallery, Eighth and F streets NW
When: Through Sept. 27, 2009
Info: Free; 202-633-8300; npg.si.edu
