#Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize

[shreyaajmani]

Vikram Kushwah’s ‘The Twins and the Green Car - 01’

Somewhere along the foothills of the Himalayas is a boarding school which provided much scope for Vikram Kushwah's imagination. The camera is Kushwah's medium to bring his daydreams to life. Shortlisted by the National Portrait Gallery, London, for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2019, and Portrait of Britain 2018 and 2019 winner—his compositions are where Pre-Raphaelite paintings and Deborah Turbeville's mysterious scapes meet. In 2023, Kushwah's work appeared in Coca-Cola's 'Masterpiece' global campaign, joining five contemporary artists alongside works by Van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Turner, Vermeer, and Munch.

Excerpt from Vikram Kushwah’s profile for Bonhams.

Text by Shreya Ajmani

[sheltiechicago]

David van Dartel: Billiew en Paduey II, from the series What Once Was

Dutch photographer David van Dartel’s series explores friendship and masculinity through portraits of young adults in European countries. Brothers Billiew and Paduey fled Sudan at a young age, settling in Glasgow. They were photographed on a trip to Loch Lomond, the first time they had visited the Scottish Highlands. Van Dartel’s portrait expresses the emotional intimacy, trust and vulnerability shared by the brothers, as a counterpoint to more traditional representations of masculine friendships

Taylor Wessing portrait prize

[ardn631matthewrimamate2024]

Photographer: Hendrik Kersten

Hendrik Kerstens is a Dutch photographer who, since 1995, has been photographing his daughter Paula. He was born in 1956 in the Hague, the Netherlands and is a self-taught artist. He began a series of photographing his daughter’s life, initially capturing her in everyday poses and attire, documenting intimate moments where she appears looking pensive in a swimsuit, or clutching herself after a bad sunburn. Kerstens gradually expanded his practice to create carefully composed portraits that playfully refer to the works of the Dutch Old Masters and the Italian Renaissance. These images use everyday items as props, such as a dishtowel or cream standing in for a maiden’s cloth and wig, and still rely on Paula as his primary subject. His photography was awarded a Taylor Wessing Photographic Prize from the National Portrait Gallery in London in 2008, and has been shown in Europe, Latin America, and the United States. He was given his first solo exhibition in the United States at the Museum for the City of New York in 2009, and he has since been commissioned for several covers of New York Times Magazine. He lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

[christianhepburnba3photoimaging]

12th December -

This portrait communicates the desired emotion, character, and story I was aiming for? I like the expression of contemplation.

The Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize The competition features a diverse range of images, including formal commissioned portraits..

The exhibition aims to tell the stories behind the creation of the works on display.

Submissions for the 2024 Prize will open in spring 2024.

The exhibition dates are from November 14, 2024, to February 23, 2025.

It has become one of the most renowned and highly respected photography competitions in the world.

The competition focuses solely on portraits captured through photography and aims to show diversity and creativity of contemporary portrait photography. It welcomes entries from both professional and amateur photographers globally.

The winning images, along with a selection of shortlisted entries, are showcased in a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London, attracting a wide audience and critical acclaim

[ryanadrianprince]

UPDATE - HOW WAS STUDYING

I was thinking and decided it would be a good idea to do a final blog post, (well, semi-final as I do see myself coming back to this blog more consistently again in the future, if I ever decide to do a PhD maybe) of how my studies went and what I have been up to now.

I remember when I decided to study for my MA in documentary photography at Westminster a few years ago, I scoured the internet looking for any reference by anyone who had studied the course or something similar. I think I found like one person's blog, and it was a big help in me making my choice to apply for the course and also showed me the type/calibre of work that might be expected of me.

So here I am hoping that I can do the same for someone else, currently typing this post so as to not leave my blog open-ended. A bit like when you find a forum of someone asking a question on the internet to which you also need an answer and no one responds. Or worse yet it has a response, a possible solution and the person asking never comes back to the forum to let us know if all his problems are solved.

To begin, I'm proud to say that I finished my course with flying colours passing with a 1st, It was tough at times but we made it! Especially studying during the COVID pandemic, I think doing the course part-time over 2 years helped A LOT and I would recommend doing a masters in that way if possible.

A few notable achievements I can mention are, I was in The Royal Photographic Society's yearly photography exhibition, which then put me on their radar to judge it the following year. I exhibited work at Photo London and Peckham 24 the same weekend which was a complete buzz and I loved it. I received a bursary from the Martin Parr Foundation which helped me buy some photography equipment, I even got to meet Martin Parr and had a cup of tea with him. I managed to have a portrait in the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery, granted it was the first time it was online due to COVID but still a big achievement! I am showing my work at a portfolio review in Switzerland coming up very soon and if things work out I should be getting my first bit of experience as an associate lecturer soon too.

So all in all studying was good for me and it went very well I feel like my career has started to really kick off since graduating! I hope anyone considering doing the same or a similar course finds my blog and this post and gets some form of inspiration from me, the same way I did when was contemplating it and I found that other person's blog. Lastly, I'm fairly happy for people to reach out if they have any questions related to photography or studying.

Good Luck.

[awomanindeniall]

Photographer Phil Sharp, talking about his portrait of Louis Tomlinson - part of the 2018 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

[thoughtportal]

“I’m by no means saying that white photographers can’t make portraits that challenge the white supremacist gaze. Some have and some do,” he said. “But photographers of color, by and large, are more likely to make images that subvert the white gaze. They do it by creating images that are rooted in the particular historical experiences of black and brown peoples. They create, that is, new ways of seeing and of knowing.”

[noconcessions]

[yylarchive]

2021 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize

Exhibition at Cromwell Place

[fujiyama-ma-ma]

Sofie in the Kitchen, from the series Meeting Sofie |  Snezhana von Buedingen

[transpondster]

 A Photographer Revisits the Book That Taught Her About Dying | The New Yorker

When the photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti was growing up in Argentina during the nineteen-seventies, her mother kept on the coffee table a copy of “Wisconsin Death Trip,” a collection of photographs taken between 1890 and 1910 by Charles Van Schaick. Made in the Wisconsin city of Black River Falls, they included studio portraits of elderly residents with worn faces and worn boots, images of large families outside small clapboard houses, and several postmortem portrayals of infants laid out in their coffins. “It was my first encounter with mortality—I remember thinking, I am going to die,” Sanguinetti recalled recently. “The book also introduced me to the idea that history is subjective. I had never seen history this way before. It had always been facts. It had always been dates. It had never been a mood, a feeling.”

A few years ago, Sanguinetti, a member of the Magnum photo agency who now lives in California, decided to revisit Black River Falls to photograph its inhabitants and their environs in the spirit of Van Schaick’s project of more than a century ago; several of Sanguinetti’s photographs, which are to be published in a forthcoming book, are currently on display at Cromwell Place, in London. (The exhibition is taking place under the aegis of the National Portrait Gallery, as part of a showcase for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize.)

[sheltiechicago]

Jake Green: Shaun Ryder

Depicting the iconic lead singer from the Happy Mondays, Ryder’s face is obscured entirely by vapour as suggested by Ryder during the photography session with Green

Taylor Wessing portrait prize

[kittesencula]

Pieter Hugo

Pieter Hugo (born 1976 in Johannesburg) is a photographic artist living in Cape Town. Major museum solo exhibitions have taken place at Museu Coleção Berardo; the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; the Hague Museum of Photography, Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Ludwig Museum in Budapest, Fotografiska in Stockholm, MAXXI in Rome and the Institute of Modern Art Brisbane, among others. Hugo has participated in numerous group exhibitions at institutions including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Barbican Art Gallery, Tate Modern, the Folkwang Museum, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, and the São Paulo Biennale. His work is represented in prominent public and private collections, among them Centre Pompidou, Rijksmuesum, the Museum of Modern Art, V&A Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, J Paul Getty Museum, Walther Collection, Deutsche Börse Group, Folkwang Museum and Huis Marseille. Hugo received the Discovery Award at the Rencontres d'Arles Festival and the KLM Paul Huf Award in 2008, the Seydou Keita Award at the Rencontres de Bamako African Photography Biennial in 2011, and was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2012. In 2015 he was shortlisted for the Prix Pictet and was chosen as the ‘In Focus’ artist for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

© Pieter Hugo

[suzylwade]

Chiara Gambuto Chiara Gambuto’s portrait of her friend Bianca (bleaching her hair) was taken upon their reunion following months of lockdown. Taken during a cigarette break in a garden in South London the portrait captures Bianca in a candid pose whilst the hair bleach takes. Gambuto, delighted at finally being together with her friend - this much anticipated meeting - and doing something as normal as helping dye her hair recorded the moment for prosperity with her medium format camera. The celebration of domestic ritual between friends is evident. The intimate portrait of Bianca - who sits dignified and reflective amid the garden miscellany - caught by her bestie Gambuto tells you everything you need to know about the quiet beauty of female friendship. And it is this shot - aptly titled ‘Bianca bleaching her hair’ - taken by Chiara Gambuto that is the winner of this year’s ‘Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize People’s Pick’. ‘Bianca bleaching her hair’ by Chiara Gambuto. #neonurchin #neonurchinblog #dedicatedtothethingswelove #suzyurchin #ollyurchin #art #music #photography #fashion #film #words #pictures #neon #urchin #photographer #landscapes #concerts #portraits #fashionphotography #bands #taylorwessingphtographicportraitprizepeoplespick #nationalportraitgallery #biancableachingherhair #chiaragambuto https://www.instagram.com/p/CMwhWGfFmQo/?igshid=15q7ywxdd9fbf

[hn1photoblog]

Aim big, the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize is one of the most prestigious and beautiful competitions, or have a look at past work for ‘Inspiration’.

[photographasdocumentspring14blog]

Comments? Thoughts?