Force

The National Portrait Gallery commissioned artist Jane Brettle to document the work of Scotland's Police Force as part of their programme of exhibitions detailing life in contemporary Scotland. Brettle is an interesting choice, in the past her work has dealt with issues of gender and race and she is not a conventional documentary photographer. She favours staged compositions influenced more by the golden era of Dutch portraiture than 'humanitarian' photography.

Although, with this show, the technique works well on occasion - the portrait of an officer from the Animal Crime Unit successfully invites comparison with traditional game painting and the relationship between hunter and hunted - unfortunately many individual pieces end up looking like photographs you would find in a Strathclyde Police recruitment brochure, staid rather than staged. The subjects look awkward but without any sense that this reveals anything other than the fact they are not used to having their photograph taken, and often the inferred references leave the works diminished rather than enhanced; one piece shows a mounted police unit with their horses. We are told that this is influenced by the equine portraits of George Stubbs, which of course, is true, in the sense that there are horses in it.

Having said that the show does do what it says on the label, and in the contemporary landscape that has something to be said for it. [John Millar]