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Expressions of interest: Hot shots from 2023’s National Photographic Portrait Prize
From intimate family studies to an entertainer who beat the odds, these portraits nail the essence of their subjects.
From intimate family studies to an entertainer who beat the odds: an intriguing array of images made it to the final stage for this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition, opening today at the National Portrait Gallery. Just 47 finalists were selected from almost 2400 entries: here’s how a few of them nailed the essence of their subject.
Ruby, 2022 (winner)
“I’ve always struggled with the size of my body, from being extremely underweight to now being overweight,” says Ruby, above, who was photographed in Melbourne’s north. “Over the past few years working with other photographers, making portraits, I’ve been processing my feelings about the transformation and how my body fits within society. I’m starting to feel more at home in my big, queer body.”
Says artist Shea Kirk: “This portrait is half of a stereoscopic pair for my project, Vantages. It’s a slow, methodical process: a shoot can last for three to nine hours. I try to maintain a space where people can feel comfortable to be themselves and in control. A portrait is a representation of someone, so we spend a lot of time just ‘being’. For me, it’s important that the process feels honest and true.“ Shea Kirk
Ugandan Ssebabi, 2022 (Art Handlers’ Award)
“Godfrey Baguma was born with a rare and painful physical disability, abandoned by his mother as a bringer of ‘bad luck’ and shunned by society. Through a chance encounter, he reinvented himself as an entertainer in a travelling show. Now 57, he has beaten the odds. While most people with his condition die by 40, he has found love, success and bought a house – a testament to human resilience and positivity. My series, Ugandan Ssebabi, is a photographic tribute to the world’s greatest underdog.” David Cossini
Bangardidjan, 2022 (highly commended)
“Bangardidjan Cindy Rostron is a strong, inspiring young leader and proud Kune, Rembarrnga, Dalabon woman of the Bonongku and Wurrbban clans. After camping by a river for a few nights, she’s on the road in remote Central Arnhem Land with her older sister in the family muddikkang (car) with a buffalo skull painted by her father, Victor Rostron, strapped to the roof.” Renae Saxby
Mamma och Mormor, 2022
“Last year, my mother and grandmother reunited at my grandmother’s house outside Stockholm after eight years apart. In Sweden, it’s not all that unusual to walk around without clothes on, but for this moment I simply wanted to capture the intimacy between loved ones who spend many years of their lives apart – and bodies can show this time quite literally. When I requested taking the image in underwear, we all laughed hysterically at jokes about saggy boobs and wrinkled skin; my grandma thought it was a shame she wasn’t 100 years old and even more shrivelled-up to make the picture more interesting. The mood was quite light-hearted despite the more sombre tone of the image. We had to work quickly to catch the fading winter light, and the long exposure time required we actually stop laughing and hold still to make the portrait.” Teva Cosic
Shirley, 2022
“I took this photo of Shirley while she was visiting her daughter’s house at Byron Bay. I love her lack of inhibitions about her body. She’s part of a generation that loves who they are.” Francis Cloake
Davide, 2022
“Davide Di Giovanni is a dancer, a choreographer and the director of New Old Now, an emerging artistic collective based in Sydney. For me, this photograph represents many themes: it’s part of a larger dialogue with visual language and the history of photography, the use of black-and-white tones, surrealism … These images were Davide’s vision, too: I love the way he knew exactly what I wanted.” Sean Slattery
Aunty Helen, 2021
“This portrait of my aunty, Helen Garner, was taken at a family reunion in Ruffy, central Victoria. Helen’s work as an author celebrates the beauty inherent in ordinary moments, and I wanted to capture her in a similarly simple act. Here, she’s shutting the gate to keep her daughter’s dog, Smokey, away from the spit roast being prepared for dinner behind me. I only took one photo. I could tell that Helen had revealed herself to the camera as she does in her writing – with rawness, vulnerability and strength.” Charlie Ford
Our First Lesson, 2022
“Senior Wiradjuri elder Peter Peckham is the owner of First Lesson Cultural Tours, which shares the language and culture of his group, the largest in the NSW central west. The Wiradjuri are known for their possum-skin cloaks, stitched traditionally using kangaroo sinew. Peter’s tours invite people to connect with Country and learn about First Nations culture.” Jimmy Widders Hunt
The Quarry, 2022
“I’d seen Brody on several occasions at our local Friday pizza night in Bexhill, on the outskirts of Lismore. He has such a striking look; I was immediately intrigued by him.
“For the past year, I’d been documenting the people and ecosystems of the Bexhill Quarry, an abandoned brickworks quarry. Now a popular swimming destination, it serves as a constant backdrop to an ever-evolving microcosm, bearing witness to people coming and going, the landscape shifting and changing. When I saw Brody there with his friends, I approached him, and he agreed to the portrait.” Tajette O’Halloran
Anne, 2022
“Anne Clarke is a young Miriuwung women from far north-western Australia. She lives on a small farm with her mum and sister, just outside the remote town of Kununurra. This portrait shows Anne in spurs and a LeBron James basketball singlet. Her dream to work in the pastoral industry reflects a long tradition of Aboriginal stockwomen; her LeBron James singlet is a nod to the growing influence of American culture – a complex mix of the past and present.” Nathan Dyer
The Priestess, 2022
“The portraits in my project, 50@50, celebrate the beauty and resilience of ageing freed from social preconceptions of what a woman should look like, of what role she should play. For her portrait, Floria Tosca, a Sydney visual artist, wanted to reconnect with her ancestry – Russian-Jewish on her father’s side and Korean on her mother’s. The wildflowers strap-wrapped to her head represent her love of Australian native flora, the blooming of her life’s journey and the growth that comes with each passing year. The straps echo the traditional binding of burdens, as well as holding her to what she loves – the paradox within womanhood. This portrait asks us to see Floria as she would like to be seen.” Cindy Kavanagh
Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) employee, Sumy oblast, Ukraine, 2022
“Olha Trypolska is a duty manager at the Trostianets train station in north-eastern Ukraine. When Russian troops invaded Trostianets in February 2022, Olha, along with seven people, hid in the basement of the station, where this portrait was later taken. Since Russia’s invasion, trains have become the backbone of the country: crucial to evacuating people, moving weapons, goods and supplies, as well as providing a diplomatic avenue and an economic lifeline.” Adam Ferguson
Mum helping with canvas, 2022
“I’ve photographed my parents since I was in high school. It wasn’t too long ago that when I photographed my mum, she was present – I’d see it in her eyes – but now, with her Alzheimer’s, that’s not always the case. This is immensely hard to see through the viewfinder. This shot was taken at my parents’ house in South Gippsland. My dad and I were looking over this beautiful old green tarp he’d found in a paddock that I wanted to use for a backdrop. Mum came out and started to straighten it up on the line, and I snapped. Making these photographs with her carry so much weight, I can barely do it. But I know I’ll thank myself one day.” Sarah Enticknap
The National Photographic Portrait Prize is running at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, until October 2.
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