insights into photography
We wrote about this award earlier in the year and showed the shortlist, you can see that post here
The winner has now been announced.
London’s National Portrait Gallery announced Stewart won the prestigious £12,000 award for his image that updates a photograph he originally submitted to the annual contest back in 2008.
In Stewart’s original photograph, his daughter and friends were about to start their GCSEs, and in the new version he re-staged the 2008 shot showing the same five girls having just graduated from university.
“I have always had a fascination with the way people interact – or, in this case, fail to interact, which inspired the photograph of this group of girls,” Stewart says. “While the girls are physically very close and their style and clothing highlight their membership of the same peer group, there is an element of distance between them.”
Organisers pointed out that this year marks for Stewart, from Lancaster, the 16th time he has had an image selected to appear in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition.
Second prize went to Anoush Abrar’s image of a young boy, inspired by Caravaggio’s painting Sleeping Cupid, while Peter Zelewski claims third prize for his image of a woman he spotted on Oxford Street while working on his series Beautiful Strangers.
Ivor Prickett won fourth prize for his portrait of a displaced Iraqi family who fled their village near Mosul after Isis took control of the area.
All the winning portraits will be on display as part of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2015 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 12 November 2015 to 21 February 2016. Admission is £4.
No I don’t get it either although more interesting are the images that are rejected, many of these are collected for The Portrait Salon
There has long been a tradition of revering the under dog, supporting the also ran. Portrait Salon describes itself as a salon des refuses – an exhibition of works rejected from a juried art show. So this exhibition is a collection of images rejected from the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize, which is organised annually by the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), in London. We heartily endorse this enterprise as we generally think the TW prize is a lot of old tosh. I know a bit inflammatory but there you go. You can see our posts about previous TW portrait awards by using the Select Category drop down menu and clicking on Photography Awards.
So to the Portrait Salon, the BBC has an article and images about this and you can see many of the images selected from the rejections. This year’s exhibition features nearly 400 works by amateur and professional photographers. You can see a few of them below.
This portrait of Frank Carter is by London-based Phil Sharp.
Giovanna Del Sarto’s portrait is one from a series made during a trip to Georgia. The backdrop fabric was from a local market and used as a makeshift studio.
Derek Mossop pictured a couple in bed.
Freelance photographer Anne-Marie Arpin’s ongoing series Les Colombophiles aims to document the relationship between a group of pigeons fanciers and their cherished birds and features this portrait of “Marcel”.
There is an exhibition to go with this project: The Portrait Salon exhibition is on show at The Embassy Tea Gallery in London from 19-22 November 2015 before travelling to The Reminders Photography Stronghold Gallery
See more pictures here or go to the Portrait Salon website here
Its that time of year, all the major awards and competitions produce their winners, yesterday we reported on the Landscape Photographer of The Year and now it is The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize. We did report on the alternative version of this prize, the one that represents the ones that didn’t win the Portrait Salon 2014 – Pictures rejected by Taylor Wessing I admit I was a bit harsh on the Taylor Wessing Prize in that piece, I suggested that to win the TW you either had to have red heads holding a small furry animal. Well I was wrong, this time it is a chicken, and I also said that every subject had to look bored out of their brains, again I was wrong, it is just most of them have to be bored. The winner this time can barely be called a portrait, this is what The Telegraph said
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize tends to draw a vocal crowd. This year more than 4,000 submissions have been whittled down to 60 exhibits, plenty capable of eliciting an “awesome” or an “awful”. However, as the last prize to be hosted by the outgoing director Sandy Nairne, there is little doubt that this is a fine swansong, delivering portraits that are variously elegant, jubilant and unsettling from a consistently accomplished selection.
Tongues will still wag. Not least because many will consider that the winning image, David Titlow’s Konrad Lars Hastings Titlow, is not a portrait at all. If you photograph a bowl of fruit, you’d be hard pressed to call it a landscape. Likewise, I’m not sure you can describe as a portrait a composition in which three adults, a baby and a dog vie for prominence (if anything the dog wins) and which focuses on the moment rather than the subjects. It’s a strong image, resonant of the Golden Age of Dutch painting (more of which later). But is it a portrait?
The 2014 winnerKonrad Lars Hastings Titlow by David Titlow. Photograph: David Titlow/National Portrait Gallery
Ah nice doggie…..
Here is the ubiquitous red heads with animal
Shortlisted imageBraian and Ryan by Birgit Püve. Photograph: Birgit Püve/National Portrait Gallery
See what I mean about bored?
Shortlisted imageSkate Girl by Jessica Fulford-Dobson. Photograph: Jessica Fulford-Dobson/National Portrait Gallery
The Guardian has an easy to access gallery here
I am not sure I can go on, the mirth is overwhelming, anyway here are some more images to tempt you along to the exhibition at the NPG
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2014is a unique opportunity to see sixty new portraits by some of the most exciting contemporary photographers from around the world.
The selected images, many of which will be on display for the first time, explore both traditional and original approaches to the photographic portrait through intimate images of friends and family alongside revealing portraits of famous faces.
This year the competition attracted over 4,000 submissions in the form of editorial, advertising and fine art prints and the selected works in the exhibition include the four prize winners as well as the winner of the John Kobal New Work Award.
Please note this exhibition contains nudity.
Also on display, in Room 39 is Hana Knizova′s portrait of Olivia Colman which was commissioned as part of the John Kobal New Work Award 2013. 13th November – 22nd February 2015
Longlisted imageArvi, by Sami Parkkinen. Photograph: Sami Parkkinen/National Portrait Gallery
and just to prove how wrong I can be here is one that incorporates a smile, still a bit doubtful as a portrait though, more street scene
Longlisted imageVijay Rudanlalji Banspal, by Karan Kumar Sachdev. Photograph: Karan Kumar Sachdev/National Portrait Gallery
Here are the links you will need
The Telegraph for an appraisal
The Guardian for a selection of images in a nice gallery format
A review and explanation in The Guardian
Good luck
It is almost a standing joke amongst many photographers, the Taylor Wessing Prize. Of course it is taken seriously by the photographic elite, academic, arts council, grant funded world but by practising photographers, no it is generally not. For a couple of years the joke was any portrait to be considered had to have a red head holding a small furry animal, previously it needed a fried egg but the overwhelming requirement was bored, the subject had to look so bored. No personality, not engagement, blank, tired, uninterested faces.
Now there is an alternative, the Portrait Salon, and looking at the images on the BBC site in the piece written by Phil Coomes I am not sure they have done much more than sweep up the not so bored, those portraits that express the smallest suggestion of subject involvement with the process that TW have rejected.
I am being reactionary but in all hyperbole there is some truth, just listen to Russell Brand rant.
This is what Phil Coomes says on the BBC website
Portrait Salon is perhaps unique in the world of photographic exhibitions as it comprises material rejected from another show. This is the fourth year that material submitted to, and rejected by, the Taylor Wessing National Portrait Gallery Photographic Portrait Prize has been brought together.
This year Christiane Monarchi (editor of Photomonitor), Emma Taylor (Creative Advice Network) and photographer Martin Usbourne (Hoxton Mini Press) selected 70 portraits from 1,184 submissions.
Emma Taylor notes that the judges had to follow their “gut instincts” when selecting images, due to limited time to assess each entry, though she feels that “there’s something rather liberating about this, something pure”.
She adds the chosen pictures are “images that made us smile, images that made us question, images so beautiful we unanimously cheered their submission”.
As you would expect, the work is engaging and diverse. It carries on the tradition of past shows and feels like one put together by photographers for photographers. The pictures are what is important, and the viewer will find much to delight.
Portrait Salon was founded by Carole Evans and James O Jenkins in 2011, and this year the show opens at Four Corners, London on 6 November. It will then tour to Fuse Art Space in Bradford, Oriel Colwyn Gallery in Clwyd, Napier University in Edinburgh as well as Birmingham, and Bristol.
Further details can be found on the Portrait Salon website.
Here is a selection of the pictures in the exhibition.
Every year there is a sharp intake of breath as the shortlist for the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize is announced, rarely can any award be more divisive amongst the practitioners of the discipline than this one. Some hold the choice up to ridicule whilst others marvel at the vapidity of the work, whilst others consider the choices as being visionary. Who knows? Anyway the choice for the short list has been made.
This is what the Artlyst site says Taylor Wessing Prize
Four photographers have been shortlisted for this year’s Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, the major international photography award. Firmly established as the leading showcase for new talent in portrait photography, the £12,000 prize is sponsored for the sixth time by international law firm Taylor Wessing.
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2013 at the National Portrait Gallery will showcase the work of some of the most talented emerging young photographers, alongside that of established professionals, photography students and gifted amateurs. Selected anonymously from an open competition, the diversity of styles reflects the international mix of entrants as well as the range of approaches to the portrait genre, encompassing editorial, advertising and fine art images. The judges have selected 60 portraits for the exhibition from 5,410 submissions entered by 2,435 photographers, an increase of 85 entries on last year. The exhibition will run from 14 November 2013 – 9 February 2014 at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
As well as the four prize winners, the exhibition will feature the John Kobal New Work Award. For the second consecutive year, this will be awarded to a photographer under the age of 30 who work has been selected for the exhibition. The winning photographer will receive a cash prize of £4,000 to include undertaking a commission from the Gallery to photograph a sitter connected with the UK film industry. It will be announced on the 12 November along with the winner.
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize continues the Gallery’s long tradition of championing the very best contemporary portrait photography. The following four photographers have been shortlisted for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2013:
Anoush Abrar, Dorothee Deiss, Giles Price and Spencer Murphy are up for the £12,000 prize, which rewards the best in contemporary portrait photography.
Kofi Annan by Anoush Abrar, 2013 © Anoush Abrar
Born in Tehran, Iran (02.06.1976), Anoush Abrar has lived in Switzerland since he was five years old. He studied at the University of Arts in Lausanne and has taught for 14 years. His portrait of Kofi Annan, the Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations until 2006, was commissioned by ZEIT Magazine and published in March 2013. Abrar had photographed Mr Annan previously and he says he knew that time was of the essence. ‘In my mind it was clear what I wanted to do’, he says, ‘and this portrait took literally three minutes!’
The twins by Dorothee Deiss, 2013 © Dorothee Deiss
Dorothee Deiss (08.05.1961) lives and works as photographer and pediatric endocrinologist in Berlin. Born 1961 in Münsingen/ Württ, she studied medicine in Freiburg/Breisgau and since then she has been working as a pediatrician. Since 2003 she has studied photography at the Fotografie am Schiffbauerdamm and at the Ostkreuzschule school for photography and design, Berlin. From 2010-13 she studied in the ‘limited residency MFA in Photography’ programme at Hartford Art School, USA, where she received her MFA in August 2013. She is a founding member of Exp12, gallery for photography, Berlin. Her portrait, from her project VisibleInvisible, is of twin sisters she visited in their house. ‘I took a lot of more conventional portraits of them’, she says, ‘but when I found the bathrobe in a corner, perfectly fitting to the bedspread, that was when I knew I had the picture’.
Katie Walsh by Spencer Murphy, 2013 © Spencer Murphy
Spencer Murphy (22.09.1978) grew up in Kent and studied at the Kent Institute of Art and Design before gaining a BA in Photography at Falmouth College of Arts. Taken at Kempton Park Racecourse his portrait of Katie Walsh was taken whilst shooting a series of jump jockeys’ portraits for Channel Four’s The Original Extreme Sport campaign. ‘I set up at the side of the racecourse and pulled in the jockeys as they finished their races, ‘he says, ‘I was keen to include Katie. I wanted to show both her femininity and the toughness of spirit she requires to compete against the best riders in one of the most demanding disciplines in horse racing. I chose to shoot the series on large format film, to give the images a depth and timelessness that I think would have been hard to achieve on a digital camera’. Shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards in both 2010 and 2011, Murphy’s work will now have been exhibited as part of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize seven times, and last year his portrait of actor Mark Rylance won him Third Prize.
Giles Price for Kumbh Mela Pilgrim Mamta Dubey and infant Kumbh Mela Pilgrim – Mamta Dubey and infant by Giles Price, 2013 © Giles Price
Hertfordshire-based Giles Price (09.07.1973) has exhibited widely and has been commissioned by several magazines and newspapers. His interest in photography began while on military service. He joined the Royal Marine Commandos at 16 and served in northern Iraq and Kurdistan at the end of the first Gulf War in 1991. After leaving the military due to injuries sustained in Iraq he went on to do a BA in Photographic Studies at University of Derby in 1994-7. His portrait is from a series shot at the 2013 Kumbh Mela Festival in Allahabad India. Taken outside the main hospital in a pop up studio, the portrait shows Mamta who was on a pilgrimage to the Kumbh.
I can already hear the shrieks of despair “every year they have a red headed child holding a small animal and this year they go all conventional on us”
The Taylor Wessing prize for portrait photography is now firmly established as one of the defining awards given to photographers. It would not be unkind to say that it often generates heated debate and bafflement as well as admiration. This year the four shortlisted photographers are : Spencer Murphy, Jennifer Pattison, Jordi Ruiz Cirera and Alma Haser.
This is from TW website:
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize presents the very best in contemporary portrait photography, showcasing the work of talented young photographers and gifted amateurs alongside that of established professionals and photography students.
Through editorial, advertising and fine art images, entrants have explored a range of themes, styles and approaches to the contemporary photographic portrait, from formal commissioned portraits to more spontaneous and intimate moments capturing friends and family.
This year the competition attracted 5,340 submissions by over 2,350 photographers from around the world. The selected sixty works for the exhibition, many of which are on display for the first time, include the four shortlisted images and the winner of the first John Kobal New Work Award. This is the best place to see the shortlisted artists as well as the others selected for exhibition
The Ventriloquists: two of Alma Haser’s friends from south London ©Alma Haser
Maria Teichroeb, by Jordi Ruiz Cirera: Maria is a member of a community of Mennonites in Bolivia ©Jordi Ruiz Cirera
Lynne Brighton, shot by Jennifer Pattison in the bedroom of a derelict house ©Jennifer Pattison
Mark Rylance, by Spencer Murphy ©Spencer Murphy
There are more images from the exhibition in The Guardian here
And also in The Guardian an interesting article by the excellent Sean O’Hagan about being asked to be a judge having been anything but complimentary about last years competition. Last November, I wrote a not altogether positive review of the 2011 Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize headlined Another animal, another girl with red hair. It described my bafflement at the judging process and the general “dullness of the selection”. It was a surprise, then, to be asked to be one of this year’s judges. I jumped at the chance. I think Sean echoed many peoples’ views on the Taylor Wessing Awards. He goes on Last year, I was critical of the Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize. This year I helped judge it – and now realise how tough it is to pick a winner. Read what he has to say about judging this year here
The winner will be announced on 5 November, ahead of an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, which organised the prize, from 8 November-17 February.
So what do you think, dull lifeless, blank stares, odd looking people or vibrant cutting edge creative photography?
“For the first time ever,” five photographers have been shortlisted for the £12,000 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize. The photographers are Jasper Clarke, David Knight, Dona Schwartz, Jooney Woodward and Jill Wooster. In a statement, Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, says: “Five great portraits emerged from closely argued discussion amongst the judges, and from another outstanding international submission for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize.” From The BJP Author: Olivier Laurent
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 presents the very best in contemporary portrait photography, showcasing the work of talented young photographers and gifted amateurs alongside that of established professionals and photography students.
Through editorial, advertising and fine art images, the entrants have explored a range of themes, styles and approaches to the contemporary photographic portrait, from formal commissioned portraits to more spontaneous and intimate moments capturing friends and family.
This year the competition attracted nearly 6,000 submissions from over 2,400 photographers from around the world. The selected sixty works for the exhibition include the four prize-winners and the winner of the ELLE commission.
Exhibiting many photographs for the first time, the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 is a unique opportunity to see images by some of the most exciting contemporary portrait photographers working today.
Felix Carpio
Oxford School of Photography 