Published on Thursday, 19 September 2024 at 3:50:05 PM
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023
A National Portrait Gallery touring exhibition
OPENING NIGHT: FRIDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2024|6-8PM
EXHIBITION DATES: 30 NOVEMBER 2024 - 2 FEBRUARY 2025
RSVP: bit.ly/coming soon
Established by the National Portrait Gallery to support and celebrate photographic portraiture in Australia, the NPPP was first awarded in 2007 and has since become a highlight of the National Portrait Gallery’s annual calendar, attracting thousands of entries each year from amateur and professional photographers around the country. The NPPP offers substantial cash and equipment prizes and the opportunity for photographers to have their work shown in a national gallery - and on tour - alongside their mentors, idols and peers.
Director of the National Portrait Gallery Bree Pickering said “The NPPP is a beloved national prize that supports the Australian photographic community and enlarges our collective experience of the Australian people, from the well-known and celebrated, to local heroes and identities. It is a pillar of the gallery’s travelling exhibition program, which sees many rich and varied examples of photographic portraiture shared with audiences across the country.”
In 2023, the judges - National Portrait Gallery Senior Curator Joanna Gilmour, Daniel Boetker-Smith, Director of the Centre for Contemporary Photography, and photo media artist Tamara Dean - selected 47 finalists from a pool of almost 2400 entries.
Joanna Gilmour said: “In its purest form, portraiture captures the real time encounter between artists and subjects. Many of the 47 finalists in 2023 succeeded in revealing the quirks or flaws or vulnerabilities of their subjects and have gently yet uncompromisingly allowed their sitters to be themselves.”
The Winner, Highly Commended, Art Handlers’ and People’s Choice awards were announced in Canberra prior to the exhibition tour.
Shea Kirk’s portrait of friend and fellow-artist Emma Armstrong-Porter, titled Ruby (left view), won the 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize. Shea won $50,000 in prizes: $30,000 cash from the National Portrait Gallery and $20,000 worth of Canon equipment thanks to Imaging Partner Canon Australia.
Renae Saxby was awarded the Highly Commended prize, for her work Bangardidjan 2022, a photo of proud Kine, Rembarrnga, and Dalabon women Cindy Rostron on the road in remote Central Arnhem Land. Renae’s prize won a ColorEdge CG2700S 27” monitor valued at almost $4,000 courtesy of EIZO.
The Art Handlers’ award recipient was David Cossini, who received $2,000 cash from IAS Fine Art Logistics for his portrait of Ugandan man Godfrey Baguma, titled Ugandan Ssebabi.
The $10,000 People’s Choice Award, supported by the Calvert-Jones Foundation, went to Bruce Agew for his portrait KAHA, 2022.
The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023 is a National Portrait Gallery touring exhibition.
This exhibition is supported but the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach Program, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to the national collections for all Australians.
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