Roy Strong at 80, National Portrait gallery

How do you celebrate your 80^th birthday when you’ve spent most of your working life as the Director of the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A Museum? In Sir Roy Strong’s case, you pose for one of the country’s most respected portrait photographers and reinvent yourself as a famous historical figure. Or 30 of them, in fact.
From Henry VIII via Toulouse Lautrec, Rasputin to President Lincoln, no detail has been spared - from composition to lighting, and of course style and dress – on this new display that has been five years in the making between the Gallery’s former director and photographer John Swannell.
Somewhere between an experiment in identity and a capricious birthday present, this new display will transport you through time as Sir Roy Strong reinvents himself and recreates famous portraits in the National Portrait Gallery collection.