Maestri: Conductors at the 2014 Proms

Chris Christodoulou is the official Proms photographer, writes David Nice. From his uniquely privileged position behind a velvet curtain, he captures the white heat of performance. The official shots roll off the press a couple of hours after the concert, but for the past five years our man in the Albert Hall has supplied theartsdesk with unofficial contraband images of conductors in action.

No doubt the presence of only two women in the roster will provoke comment. Blame the Proms for not doing more: the change is happening, but not fast enough. Some of these conductor portraits will make you laugh out loud. But more often, the passion and ferocity are serious proof that some of the best conducting is not about acting but about channelling emotion. In these instances, the second of Richard Strauss’s "Ten Golden Rules" for conducting, that only the audience should perspire, clearly doesn’t apply.

• Read theartsdesk's coverage of the Proms

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge

Prom 2: Long Yu

Prom 4: Valery Gergiev

Prom 5: David Zinman

Prom 6: Robin Ticciati

Prom 11: Stephen Bell

Prom 16: Sascha Goetzel

Prom 17: William Christie

Prom 21: John Wilson

Prom 26: Vasily Petrenko

Prom 27: Mark Wigglesworth

Prom 29: Gianandrea Noseda

Prom 33: Edward Gardner

Prom 34: Thomas Søndergård

Prom 44: Sir Andrew Davis

Prom 46: Daniel Barenboim

Prom 47: Andris Nelsons

Prom 48: Ilan Volkov

Prom 51: Jac van Steen

Prom 52: Iván Fischer

Prom 54: Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Prom 55: Myung-Whun Chung

Prom 57: Daniel Harding

Prom 58: Donald Runnicles

Prom 59: Semyon Bychkov

Prom 63: Marin Alsop

Prom 64: Sir Simon Rattle

Prom 67: Han-Na Chang

Prom 76: Sakari Oramo