Steph Wilson wins Taylor Wessing photography prize with striking portrait

National Portrait Gallery announces £15,000-winning portrait that conveys atypical image of motherhood

A portrait documenting an unconventional and “imperfect” example of motherhood has won one of the world’s most prestigious photography prizes.

The National Portrait Gallery has named the British photographer Steph Wilson as winner of the 2024 Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize for her portrait Sonam. The photographer, who works between London and Paris, wins £15,000.

The portrait, which is part of a larger project called Ideal Mother, features a sitter – Sonam – whom Wilson met through Instagram after asking for atypical mothers willing to be photographed. The artist’s ambition was to present sitters as more than just mothers, referring to all elements that contribute towards a whole person capable of many achievements.

Sonam is an unexpectedly masculine image of motherhood. The mother sits with her legs widely sprawled as her baby clings to her chest. She also has a direct and unsmiling gaze, close-cut hair and a moustache.

Sonam by Steph Wilson
Sonam by Steph Wilson. Photograph: Steph Wilson

Sonam is a wig-maker by trade and we’re told she wears the false moustache as a statement of her career, as well as a reference to instances when she was encouraged to embrace her masculine features by friends and family.

The NPG said it was a portrait of balance, which broadened conversations on pregnancy and parenthood, and a visual of individuality and authenticity.

It said the judges felt the portrait was instantly eye-catching and challenged audience assumptions. The relationship between Sonam and her baby, and details revealing elements of her personality, were just some of the many layers of understanding in the image.

The £3,000 second prize went to the Australian photographer Adam Ferguson for three portraits captured during extended journeys into the Northern Territory and Western Australia, made for his project and new book Big Sky.

Made over a 10-year period, the series depicts the impact of globalisation and climate breakdown, in addition to the colonial legacy that underpins modern Australia against the backdrop of the romanticised outback.

The £2,000 third prize went to the Dutch photographer Tjitske Sluis for her series Out of Love, Out of Necessity, which documents the photographer’s mother during the final stages of her life, while Sluis cared for her.

Sluis, who came to photography through journalism, used her camera as a coping device during a period of grief and disorientation, while her mother, Teuntje, found a tension-relieving humour in being photographed.

The £8,000 photographic commission to create a new work for the NPG’s collection was awarded to the South African photographer Jesse Navarre Vos for his portrait Mom, I’ll follow you still.

It is from Vos’s series I’ll Come Following You, which depicts his mother, Edith Mavis Velk, who is in fact his biological paternal grandmother – his legal guardian since his birth and mother by adoption since Vos’s teens.

After a burglary at the family’s home in 2018, the previously self-reliant Edith was unable to look after herself. Vos’s shortlisted photograph depicts Edith pausing in a lift in the care facility she eventually entered.

The winning portraits will be on display at the NPG as part of the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2024 exhibition, which also includes the series Father by the artist Diana Markosian, and a newly unveiled portrait of the clean-air advocate Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah by last year’s winner of the Taylor Wessing photographic commission, Serena Brown.

The 2024 judging panel included the multimedia artist Pogus Caesar; the curators Alona Pardo and Lou Stoppard; and the NPG’s curator of photography Clare Freestone.










Contributor

Text Reader Listen to this page

Nadia Khomami Arts and culture correspondent

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Shortlist announced for Taylor Wessing portrait prize
Images of surfers, boy in school uniform and orthodox Jews will compete for prestigious photography award

Mark Brown Arts correspondent

12, Sep, 2016 @12:50 PM

Article image
Image of determined 16-year-old migrant wins Taylor Wessing portrait prize
Spanish journalist César Dezfuli wins £15,000 award for his photograph of teenager rescued from the Mediterranean Sea

Mark Brown

14, Nov, 2017 @8:19 PM

Article image
Photo of girl fleeing Isis shortlisted for Taylor Wessing portrait prize
Images by Abbie Trayler-Smith, César Dezfuli and Maija Tammi in contention for annual photographic award

Mark Brown Arts correspondent

05, Sep, 2017 @11:30 AM

Article image
Portrait of jockey Katie Walsh wins Taylor Wessing photography prize
Spencer Murphy's post-race portrait of the mud-spattered jump jockey wins £12,000 prize, a year after coming third

Mark Brown, arts correspondent

12, Nov, 2013 @8:00 PM

Article image
Alice Mann wins 2018 Taylor Wessing prize with series Drummies
Four portraits of South African majorettes from Western Cape are first time a series has won

Haroon Siddique

16, Oct, 2018 @7:00 PM

Article image
Photo of mother and baby shortlisted for Taylor Wessing prize
Portrait of South African drum majorette also on shortlist for prestigious photography award

Mark Brown Arts correspondent

30, Aug, 2018 @10:02 AM

Article image
Eyewitness: Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize
Photographs from the Guardian Eyewitness series

05, Sep, 2014 @11:21 AM

Article image
Taylor Wessing portrait prize won by photo of boy in school uniform
Swiss-Italian photographer Claudio Rasano praised by judges for creating ‘something beautiful out of the everyday’

Mark Brown Arts correspondent

15, Nov, 2016 @8:15 PM

Article image
Paralympian portrait wins photography prize

Paul Floyd Blake's portrait of 13-year-old swimmer Rosie Bancroft wins Taylor Wessing prize at National Portrait Gallery

Mark Brown, arts correspondent

04, Nov, 2009 @12:05 AM

Article image
Sydney photographer scoops 2021 Taylor Wessing prize
David Prichard’s series, a tribute to Indigenous stock women, was shot in the north of Queensland

Nadia Khomami Arts and culture correspondent

08, Nov, 2021 @8:00 PM