Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize (2012) - NPG

Jordi Ruiz Cirera, Margarita Teichroeb

The winner of the 2012 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize is Jordi Ruiz Cirera for his picture of Margarita Teichroeb.
Read an article by one of the judges, Sean O'Hagan.
The exhibition of works selected for the competition will be at The National Portrait Gallery until 17 February 2013. (All text, below, is from the NPG website.)

Born in Spain in 1984, Jordi Ruiz Cirera studied Design at Elisava College, Barcelona before moving to the UK and gaining an MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication. His shortlisted portrait of Margarita, a Mennonite from the Swift Current Colony in Bolivia, is part of his long term project portraying the daily life of this community.
He says, ‘Almost all of the houses have tables in front of their windows giving fantastic light to the scene. Sitting in front of the camera was not easy for Margarita, photography is forbidden for Mennonites and having her direct portrait taken was quite difficult so I could only take two frames of her. Even though we were enjoying the situation, Margarita posed with this sort of awkward expression.’

Second prize was awarded to Jennifer Pattison for Lynne, Brighton.

Jennifer Pattison, Lynne, Brighton

Born in Hertfordshire in 1978, Jennifer Pattison gained a BA in Photography at the London College of Printing before beginning a career as a photographic agent and producer. Her shortlisted portrait is of her friend Lynne and was taken in the empty bedroom of a derelict house in Brighton. It is part of a currently untitled series of naked portraits and landscapes.
Pattison says, ‘There is an interesting shift in the consciousness of the sitter during the slow process of making these portraits; a moment in the quiet where they become unaware that they are naked. I capture them as they drift to another place. With no direction Lynne adopted this straightforward pose, bare and undaunted, looking straight down the lens and beyond.’

Third prize was awarded to Spencer Murphy for Mark Rylance.

Spencer Murphy, Mark Rylance

Spencer Murphy, born in 1978, grew up in Kent and studied at the Kent Institute of Art and Design before gaining a BA in Photography at the Falmouth College of Arts. His shortlisted portrait is of actor Mark Rylance and was commissioned for the cover of the Telegraph Magazine to mark the actor’s return to the Globe to play Richard III.

Murphy says, ‘I’ve always enjoyed working with actors as there’s no awkwardness or discomfort in front of the camera and they are able to understand direction and react to it very easily. Mark was no exception.’
Fourth prize was awarded to Alma Haser for The Ventriloquist.

Alma Haser, The Ventriloquist

Born into an artistic family in the Black Forest, Germany in 1989, Alma Haser moved to the UK in 1995 and gained a BA in Photography from Nottingham Trent University. Her shortlisted portrait, taken in her shared house in South London, is of friends Luke and James who have known each other since they were 12. Struck by their hairstyles, Haser initially planned to take separate portraits but it was difficult to get them to concentrate so she decided to photograph them together.
She says, ‘I asked them to sit on a tiny, wobbly coffee table, forcing them to almost cling onto each other. Ultimately I wanted to turn their verbal banter into a visual image. The title is designed to help viewers make up their own stories about what is going on.’

Other shortlisted pictures include:

Jason Pierce Williams, Pastry Chef

David Brunetti, Brehan

Eamonn McCabe, Sarah Lucas

See below for pictures from the 2011 and 2010 competitions.

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize - NPG

Harriet and Gentleman Jack, 2011, by Jooney Woodward

The winner of the 2011 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize has been announced as Jooney Woodward for her pictue of Harriet and Gentleman Jack. The exhibition of works selected for the competition will be at The National Portrait Gallery until 12 February 2012. (All text, below, is from the NPG website.)

Born in London in 1979, Woodward grew up in Dorset and returned to the capital to study Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts, specialising in photography in her final year. Her shortlisted portrait is of 13 year old Harriet Power, a steward at the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show, photographed in the guinea pig judging enclosure. Woodward says: ‘I found her image immediately striking with her long red hair and white stewarding coat. She is holding her own guinea pig called Gentleman Jack, named after the Jack Daniel’s whisky box in which he was given to her. Using natural light from a skylight above, I took just three frames and this image was the first. There is something unsettling about the austere background and the scratch on her hand.’

Second prize went to Jill Wooster for Of Lili. 

Of Lili, 2011, by Jill Wooster

Born in1977 in New Haven, Connecticut, Jill Wooster has lived in New York, San Francisco and currently lives in London. Her portrait is of her friend, Lili Ledbetter and was taken at Wooster’s flat in Peckham. She says: ‘Lili is a complicated character. I like the way her androgyny makes her appearance seem both guarded and relaxed at the same time, capturing both her confidence and vulnerability.’

Third prize went to Dona Schwartz for Christina and Mark, 14 months.

Christina and Mark, 14 months, by Don Schwartz

Born in the US in 1955, Dona Schwartz is an Associate Professor specialising in Visual Communication at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. Her shortlisted portrait is of Christina and Mark Bigelow from Minnesota in their son’s vacated bedroom. The image is from her current series, On the Nest, documenting moments of change in parents’ lives, and this photograph explores the emotions experienced by parents as their children leave home. She says: ’the transition to life as an empty nester lacks formal ritual observance. In this case there is no finite gestation period and the new beginning it heralds may be more sobering.’
The following photographs were shortlisted:

The Embrace, from the series Hot Ink, 2010, by Jonathan May

Dolly Parton, 2011, by Zed Nelson

Monette and Mady, from the series Rue Des Partants, 2010, by Maja Daniels

Malega, Surma Boy, April 2011, from the series Ethiopia, Portraits of the South, 2011, by Mario Marino

Old Truman Brewery/Claudia, 2011, by Darren Hall

Tatiana and Belene, from the series Venus & Furs, 2011, by Yann Gross

Wen, 2011, by Jasper Clarke

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize - National Portrait Gallery

David Chancellor's Huntress with Buck has been awarded first prize in the Taylor Wessing portrait prize at the National Portrait Gallery. The portrait is of 14-year-old American Josie Slaughter, a skilled hunter from Birmingham, Alabama, on her first hunting trip to South Africa. Chancellor says: ‘The contrast between the peace and tranquillity of the location, plus Josie’s ethereal beauty and the dead buck, was what I wanted to explore. Here was a vulnerability and yet also a strength.’

Second prize was awarded to Panayiotis Lamprou for Portrait of My British Wife; Lamprou says of the picture: ‘To me, it expresses female power and independence as well as my devotion to my wife’.

Third prize went to Jeffrey Stockbridge for Tic Tac and Tootsie (twin sisters Carroll and Shelly McKean) The sisters, who live on the street in Kensington, North Philadelphia, and suffer from insomnia, are both addicted to Xanex and have resorted to prostitution to supply their habit.
Stockbridge says, ‘Enduring unthinkable pain on a daily basis, the sisters are both incredibly strong and weak at the same time. Caught in the grip of their addiction, they do whatever it takes to survive, except for getting clean'.

Fourth prize went to Abbie Trayler-Smith for Untitled 2 from her series Childhood Obesity. The prtrait is of Chelsea from Sheffield. Trayler-Smith says, ‘Whilst talking about how it feels to live with the prejudices that come with being overweight, I looked away to change the film in my camera. When I looked back the picture was suddenly there. I shot one frame.’

The exhibition is at the National Portrait Gallery from 11th November - 20th February 2011. All quotes and details above are from the NPG website.