Not sure it is good form to "Heren Istarion" one's own thread but there was a fascinating interview with Lord Snowdon on Radio 4's Front Row this week (straight after "The Archers " else I would probably havie missed it

) which I was going to transcribe but this interview in yesterday's Telegraph covers the most interesting point in relation to the Tolkien portraits about the "edge" he sought and more explicitly than on the radio of the cruelty of photography (though personally I am more liable to inflict cruelty on anyone attempting to take my picture...)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/p...ing-to-do.html