Jony Ive at the National Portrait Gallery

Combining my love of photography and my faith in Apple products now comes second nature. So I couldn’t resist popping into the National Portrait Gallery to see Andreas Gursky’s photograph of Sir Jonathan Ive posing in the new Norman Foster-designed Apple Park in California.

Sir Jonathan said he was honoured to have his photograph taken by Gursky, the renowned German photographer: “I have been obsessed with Andreas’s work for a couple of decades and vividly remember the thrill of our first meeting seven years ago.

Detail of Sir Jonathan from Gursky's portrait
Detail of Sir Jonathan from Gursky’s portrait

“His very particular and objective presentation of what he sees, whether voluminous landscapes or the rhythm and repetition of supermarket shelving is both beautiful and provocative. Mindful that he rarely makes portraits, this is a conspicuous and particular honour for me.”

If you haven’t already paid a visit, do call in to the National Portrait Gallery to see this evocative image. Entrance is free, of course, so you won’t feel shortchanged if you don’t have time to see the rest of the wonderful portraits on display.

Images, Mike Evans, Leica CL and 18mm Elmarit f/2.8

Via The Standard, London

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5 COMMENTS

  1. Now there is an artist, come to think of, there are two artists who can seemingly get away with anything.

    Where Steve McCurry gets into a whole heap of trouble for removing stuff from his exposures, Andreas Gurskey in his most famous picture, removed ALL of the buildings from across the horizon. The effect of course is astounding, as with most of his work, and more importantly relevant to his vision. The scale of his work is immense, this little thing seems insignificant by comparison.

    Jony Ive does something similar when periodically, apparently really useful sockets, keyboards and switches are changed or removed from a new Apple product, purely for aesthetics, and he always gets away with it.

    And yet, we the general hoi-polloi rarely hear anything about either of them. To me that must be the idea, when you put your head above the water it is to pass go and collect £200, rather than to explain some odd behaviour that the news hogs have dug up.

    Anyway, I will have to pop in to have a look. Do you know whether this is a permanent display Mike?

    • One further thing, I notice from your picture Mike, that the portrait is behind glass. I wonder whether this is done on purpose by exhibitors?

      I have a couple of pictures that are behind “museum glass” and reflections are almost invisible. What is more, the said pictures look better this way, weird really because it looks a little opaque when viewed out of the frame.

      • I think it was behind glass and it was terribly difficult to photograph. However what looks like reflections is partly the picture itself which depicts a lot of glass and reflections.

        • Coincidentally my (Feedly) rss feed, threw out just for entries down from yours, one from here: (https://www).diyphotography.net/six-tips-to-help-you-get-perfect-photo-prints/ minus the brackets of course.

          The interviewee, a professional printer was asked about whether he thought pictures should be framed behind glass, museum glass, or no glass… He preferred the latter and thought the only good reason for the others was largely irrelevant, unless the work was within touching distance.

    • I suspect it isn’t permanent. It’s in a rather odd mezzanine space which I suspect is for temporary stuff. I couldn’t find the details when I checked but you may be more successful.

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