In March 2018, London's National Portrait Gallery for the first time in its 160-year history featured an exhibition devoted to film. The exhibition included a series of filmed portraits displaying conceptual artist Tacita Dean’s fascination with age and the passage of time. <br><br>Dean’s subjects are older men, drawn from a pool of great artists, poets and thinkers. Often captured in the comfort of familiar surroundings, they go about their daily business, or sit, quietly musing over their thoughts. In <em>Portraits</em> (2016) Dean captures David Hockney contemplatively smoking a cigarette whilst reflecting on his own work<sup>1</sup>.<br><br>The medium of film provides Dean with the means to capture her subjects with true fidelity. She achieves a greater realism by allowing the sitter to move freely and to react naturally to their surroundings. By removing the artificial constraints of a conventional sitting, the subject becomes inclined towards their own thoughts and less attuned to the presence of the camera. She films her subject slowly and inconspicuously, gathering images at a steady, unhurried pace, allowing their character to emerge deliberately through the lens of the camera.<br><br>Dean is an exceptionally meticulous observer of her environment. The patience and care she devotes to looking and seeing is reflected in her work and practice; both exhibiting a slow, steady and considered quality. Her exceptional commitment to the medium of film has been rewarded with an unprecedented solo exhibition at the home of British portraiture.<br>