A photograph of a woman holding her baby daughter has been shortlisted for one of the world’s most prestigious photography awards along with shoppers, a drum majorette and a child from a remote village in Sierra Leone.
The National Portrait Gallery in London announced the shortlist on Thursday for the Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize – four images chosen from 4,462 submissions by 1,973 photographers from 70 countries.
Nicholas Cullinan, the gallery director who chairs the jury, said the variety of approaches, techniques and styles of photographs submitted this year had been “particularly striking”.
Enda Bowe, an Irish photographer based in London, is shortlisted for Cybil McAddy with daughter Lulu from a series called Clapton Blossom. Bowe said he was trying to find “the colour and beauty in the urban, the light in the grey”.
A double portrait of two unnamed shoppers in central London is the shortlisted work of the London-born photographer Max Barstow, from his series Londoners.
Barstow said his aim had been to “make unposed portraits with the intensity of images made by great studio photographers such as Richard Avedon and Irving Penn”. The photograph was taken in the middle of a crowd, he said, freezing a pair of friends shopping in the busy flow of a summer Sunday afternoon.
Alice Mann, a South African photographer based in London, is shortlisted for a portrait of Keisha Ncube, a drum majorette, from her series Drummies, shot in South Africa’s Western Cape.
“For these girls, involvement in ‘drummies’ becomes a vehicle for them to excel, and the distinctive uniforms serve as a visual marker of perceived success and represents emancipation from their surroundings,” Mann said.
The fourth photographer shortlisted is Joey Lawrence, born in Canada and based in Brooklyn, for his Portrait of “Strong” Joe Smart.
The image is from a series commissioned by WaterAid, shot in Tombohuaun (Tombo’s wound) – a remote village in the jungle of Sierra Leone’s Eastern Province that struggles with waterborne illnesses.
“Rather than just creating images that underscored Tombohuaun’s plight, WaterAid and I envisioned a portrait study of the community that would highlight its resilience, its fraternity, its highly organised structure and its work ethic,” Lawrence said.
All four images will be part of the annual photographic prize exhibition, with the winner, who will receive £15,000, announced on 16 October.
- The Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize exhibition is at the National Portrait Gallery in London from 18 October to 27 January.
