80 years of press photography

The National Portrait Gallery is holding a presentation of 80 years of press photography entitled Daily Encounters.

The exhibition, due to run to the 21st October, aims to show a little of the impact of photography on popular culture as well as revealing how the industry works and how it has affected popular tastes.

A panel review on BB2 I came across criticised how the display fails to guide you round thematically and how the pictures do not vary in size, adding contrast and impact.

However, I think the strength of images (including this one of Hitchcock on the left) are worth anyone's time who has any feeling for the visual arts.

Curiously, the exhibition finishes in the 80s. How the impact of citizen journalism is affecting newspapers, media in general and the role of the professional photographer is another issue and one that would be worth examining to this art displayed under the photography banner.

Many thanks to the National Portrait Gallery for allowing me to use the image, which is copyright of Getty Images.