What's Up Wednesday (Duke of Swann Photography Exhibition)

This past weekend saw the Duke of Swann open an exhibition of his famous photographic portraits. The photos have been covered in previous posts on our blog when they were first released but now will have their own physical exhibition in the Swann capital. Please follow the two links below for the two features on the photos by themselves.

http://daniel-s-world.blogspot.com/2014/10/wonderful-weekends-duke-of-swann-photo.html

http://daniel-s-world.blogspot.com/2012/10/wonderful-weekends-duke-of-swann-photo.html

The Swann Royal Art Gallery was the obvious choice for the Duke's second internationally acclaimed exhibit and also received much needed publicity of its own for it.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Swann, patron of the museum and the Swann Royal Society for Visual Arts was the guest of honour and host at the opening on Saturday evening.

First of the V.I P. guests to arrive was the world famous art collector and friend of the Duke of Swann, the Baron D'Rothchild and his wife.

The highest ranking Royal to be present at the exhibit and representing herself and her husband who couldn't make it was the Crown Princess Imperial. Both the Princess and her husband (the Duke of Swann's cousin) are featured in the photo series exhibition.

Inside the museum's main gallery the portraits are displayed in the format they were intended to be seen in, namely printed out very large and with no embellished frames.The clean cut lines and uncluttered design of the gallery lends itself perfectly for focusing all attention on the displayed art.

The photo portraits can do nothing but attract the viewers attention in sequence as they are set out in the gallery.

The full exhibit makes for a very impressive site of avant garde expression.

A media magnet, the "Punk Princess" the Princess Oktavia Von Hohen und Silberstein was also on the illustrious guest list and showed great interest in acquiring prints of the photo set.

Another featured Royal with a photo on the wall was the Princess of Wallachia, another cousin of the Duke of Swann. The photo series focused mainly on close family and intimate friends of the Duke.

As the guests and media filled the gallery the Duke of Swann wasted no time to begin mingling.

All present were clearly enthralled by the exhibit...

...and luxurious facilities allowed for respite amid the excitement.

The Duke of Swann is seen chatting to his cousin, Princess Kirsten Youssopoff who can be seen as the subject of the portrait on the wall behind them. The photos aim to capture the subjects personality and character as seen by the photographer who presumes to know the subject intimately. It also hopes to portray boldly the more unknown realities of the Royal persona in their duty as a Royal.

Here Princess Augusta is seen in front of her portrait. She opted to be immortalized wearing a tiara she was at that stage in the process of selling, ironically cementing her role in history, not just as a Princess but as a antique jewellery dealer.

The Duke of Swann also captured his sister and her husband in separate portraits.

The Duke has a very long and intimate friendship with his closest aide, Sir Charles Jennings. Descended from Royalty himself but now the personal secretary/chauffeur/bodyguard was given the honour of counting as one of the Duke's recognized inner circle with a portrait of his own.  Do you think the portrait captures the nature of Sir Charles, just from what we mentioned here?

The exhibit centers around three main female characters, representing three generations of Royalty and the Duke of Swann's own heritage. Here we see His Royal Highness next to the Crown Princess Imperial with her portrait. She represents the current generation of modern Royals marching boldly into the future. Another portrait of her husband, the pretender Emperor of the United Empire, is also on display at the gallery.

Each portrait is accompanied with a short poetic tribute to the subject. Here follows the one coupled to the Portrait of the Crown Princess Imperial: "Gently wild, humbly beautiful, naturally crowned. More of who she is inside than what she wears on the outside. This farm girl made princess will always beam an innocent smile outshining any of the grandest jewels at her disposal. Her Imperial Highness the Crown Princess Imperial will make a worthy Empress if the United Empire ever gets restored. Regardless she will never be anything other than an amazing woman."

The next portrait in the series of three central characters is that of the deceased Empress Crystobel, taken long before her tragic assassination. The portrait drew much and very emotive responses from the gallery guests, some of whom, close family members of the Duke of Swann's aunt.

A matriarch, loving mother, wise planner, resolute, hopeful, refined and graceful. All these qualities shine through regardless of the title borne by Empress Crystobel, former co-regent of the now fallen United Empire of Scot-Britania. 

The next and last portrait in the series of three is not one taken by the Duke of Swann but owned through inheritance by him. It is exhibited in homage to the Duke of Swann's father who was the photographer and original inspiration for the Duke of Swann's interest in photograpy. It is clear from this portrait where the Duke of Swann got his "eye" for photographic opportunities and composition from. One could say that it was this very portrait that directly led to the Duke of Swann, years later, to do the whole series and exhibit.

The photo is of Queen Crystobel I of Scotney, mother to Empress Crystobel and grandmother to the Duke of Swann. She stands as testament of an old world foundation that now three generations later we all still build on. The photo stands as testament of talents and vision being passed from father to son regardless of intellectual disagreements and emotional hurdles. The photo, a state portrait taken by the former Duke of Swann as a gift for the Queen and people of Scotney, stands as the permanence of the concept of Royalty. Ironically, the original gifted portrait was destroyed during the 96 Revolution but the Duke of Swann had another original copy in his archives which is the one on display. 

 The Duke of Swann has, in the spirit of the original portrait and the exhibition as a whole, decided to donated the portrait to the Scot-Britanian Government as an official historic State Portrait. 

We close with the words the Duke of Swann stated in his opening address; "Images are truly powerful and we hope that these inspire this generation and the next to greater heights."

 To see more on the entire exhibit with all the photo portraits accompanied by their descriptions please follow the links shared above.