I always look forward to the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize, when it comes round each year and we’re in the midst of a cold and rainy February, it seems to bring with it an immense range of colour and variant topics which are not really seen in any other mainstream photography exhibitions.
Although this year there were great works shown, not to mention the first prize (David Chancellor Huntress with Buck) there was one particular image that really caught my eye. Amy Helene Johansson’s Unsafe Journey took me right back to my time in India and also brought to mind my imminent return there next month. During the month of Ramadan tens of thousands of people leave the city of Dhaka in Bangladesh heading north to spend the celebration with their families, the train tickets sell out fast and some people simply can’t afford to buy them, the woman in the image finds herself a spot where most people would never settle. Johansson has completely captured the essence of Asia here, the no nonsense approach to travel and life in general, the birds eye view of the woman and the ground whirring past below complete the image and her studium is clear. Yet this image held a punctum for me. When I was thirteen or fourteen on one of the many trains we took whilst travelling from north to the south of India, I passed the kitchen carriage on my way to the loo. The sight was truly astonishing scrawny men in shorts and flip flops balancing on the side of gaping hole, ground whirring past much like that of Unsafe Journey, above which was perched a huge vat of boiling oil. The men swayed from side to side fishing out samosas by the dozen, without even batting an eye lid. I remember thinking that wouldn’t pass safety laws in England! Johansson’s image took me right back to that day the smell, the taste of the samosas and the sheer absurdity of the entire seen. Thank you Amy!
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