Daniel Cooney Fine Art is on my mental list for always offering something interesting, sometimes work new to me. Daniel’s current show pairs two portrait photographers, Francesca Romeo and Tema Stauffer, which makes for an interesting juxtaposition, because you will probably be drawn towards one or the other. How can I say this? Well, from talking about portraiture and getting responses how people react to them I have an inkling.

The characters in Francesca Romeo’s portraiture are quite colourful (to say the least), and for my taste Francesca seemed to rely a bit too much on just that. I thought her side of the show was thus a bit of a mixed bag - a photo of a guy with blood-shot eyes is not necessarily a good portrait just because the guy has blood-shot eyes (no really!).

In contrast, Tema Stauffer’s portraits are way more reserved, to the point where I could imagine people finding the effort needed to “read” them too tedious. Of course, it’s just this aspect of contemporary portraiture that draws me to it: Being given the freedom to see with my own eyes (at least to some extent, of course).

Of course, you might see these portraits the other way around. Either way, as an very interesting exhibition offering two somewhat different approaches to portraiture here’s a show you don’t want to miss - it’s still up until the end of the week (according to the gallery’s website).