The National Portrait Gallery in London has announced the shortlist for the prestigious Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2024. 62 portraits by 55 photographers worldwide will be displayed, showcasing a diverse array of talent from the UK, the Netherlands, South Africa, Australia, and beyond.
The four shortlisted photographers are:
Adam Ferguson for Pintupi-Luritja Lutheran Pastor Simon Dixon, Ikuntji/Haast Bluff, Arrernte Country, Northern Territory; Cousin sisters Shauna and Bridget Perdjert, Kardu Thithay Diminin Clan and Murrinhpatha language group Kukatja Pintupi boy Matthew West, hunting trip – all from the series Big Sky.
Jesse Navarre Vos for Mom, I’ll still follow you—from the series, I’ll come following you.
Tjitske Sluis for Mom – from the series Out of Love, Out of Necessity
Steph Wilson for Sonam – from the series Mother Book
The exhibition will feature these remarkable works alongside a special “In Focus” display by acclaimed photographer Diana Markosian, who will present pieces from her latest publication, Father. The exhibition will run from November 14, 2024, to February 16, 2025, offering visitors a chance to experience some of the most compelling contemporary portrait photography.
The Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize winner will be revealed on November 12, 2024. The prize attracts thousands of entries each year and is highly regarded in the photography world for highlighting exceptional work and elevating emerging and established photographers alike.
Among the notable images in the exhibition are Cousin sisters Shauna and Bridget Perdjert, Kardu Thithay Diminin Clan and Murrinhpatha language group, Kardu Yek Diminin Country, Air Force Hill, Wadeye, Northern Territory, 2023 by Adam Ferguson; Mom, I’ll follow you still by Jesse Navarre Vos; Mom by Tjitske Sluis; and Sonam by Steph Wilson. These images, representing personal and cultural narratives, are part of a broader selection that the judges carefully chose from 4,847 entries submitted by 1,713 photographers.
The Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize continues to be a significant platform for contemporary portrait photography, and this year’s exhibition is expected to draw large crowds eager to see the shortlisted works and Diana Markosian’s contributions.
L to R Mom by Tjitske Sluis from the series Out of Love, Out of Necessity, 2023 © Tjitske Sluis; Sonam by Steph Wilson from the series Mother Book, 2023 © Steph Wilson
Adam Ferguson is an Australian photographer based in New York. He holds a Bachelor of Photography from Queensland College of Art, and is currently a candidate for a Master of Fine Arts from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology School of Art. His work has been widely exhibited, including as part of the National Photographic Portrait Prize for the National Portrait Gallery of Australia and at the Sony World Photography Awards. Work from his series Migrantes was exhibited in the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize in 2022.
Ferguson’s three shortlisted portraits were captured during extended journeys into the Northern Territory and Western Australia, made for his project Big Sky. Made over a ten year period, the series depicts the impact of globalisation and climate change, in addition to the colonial legacy which underpins modern Australia against the backdrop of the romanticised Outback.
Pintupi Luritja, Lutheran Pastor Simon Dixon was made in collaboration with the sitter, Simon Dixon, and his local church after Ferguson met the pastor at an Easter service in Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory. The Lutheran missionaries who established Christian communities in this remote part of the country a century ago transformed the nomadic life of indigenous populations. Ferguson intentionally juxtaposes the exalting pastor in his robes with the uncultivated landscape behind.
These contrasts continue in Cousin sisters Shauna and Bridget Perdjert and Hunting Trip. The former features two young indigenous women – Shauna (left) and Bridget (right) – sitting overlooking the vast bush landscape, wearing t-shirts emblazoned with global popstar, Taylor Swift. The photograph explores the tension between the romantic fantasies of the Outback depicted in history and popular culture, with encroaching commercialisation. In Kukatja Pintupi boy Matthew West, hunting trip, Ferguson records an indigenous kangaroo hunt near the remote community of Balgo, using the hunt as a metaphor through which to critique the destruction inflicted across Australia by Western settlers.
Jesse Navarre Vos is a photographer from Cape Town, South Africa. Vos sees portrait photography as a way of connecting with people, whether that be through his fashion and editorial work, or the ongoing personal collaboration with his mother, of which this shortlisted work is part.
Vos’ series I’ll Come Following You follows 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’ teens. Following a burglary at the family’s home in 2018, the previously self-reliant Edith was unable to look after herself. Vos’ shortlisted photograph depicts Edith pausing in a lift in the care facility she eventually entered. He describes that when photographing his mother in the lift, he felt she was “distant, going somewhere that I couldn’t follow.” He sustained their connection by pausing to make the image and propping the door open with a cushion. This project is a collaboration; the photographer’s mother an equal contributor.
Tjitske Sluis is a Dutch photographer based in Utrecht, who came to photography through journalism. At the Dutch newspaper Dagblad De Limburger, she found herself drawn to the storytelling power of photographs, developing a career in reportage before going freelance as a documentary photographer.
Sluis’ moving series Out of Love, Out of Necessity documents the photographer’s mother during the final stages of her life, while Sluis cared for her. Sluis’ camera became an important coping device during this period of grief and disorientation and her mother, Teuntje, found a tension-relieving humour in being photographed as they created the series together. The series is about vulnerability, transience and learning how to cope with the death of a loved one, capturing tender, intimate moments.
Sluis’ portrait Mom depicts her sleeping mother – afloat on a sea of floral duvet – and speaks to the deep trust and understanding between them. Tender details reflect Teuntje’s mental resilience in the face of declining physical health. Despite her frail form, Teuntje’s “infectious spirit” is echoed through her bold lip-patterned jumper and the dog’s bright eyes. Teuntje passed away at home, just a few days after the portrait was taken. Sluis’ series also engages with the ongoing care crisis in the Netherlands, and when initially published in De Volkskrant newspaper, it prompted a debate in Dutch parliament about this critical issue. Empowered to use her photography to bring about meaningful change, Sluis is now pursuing a master’s degree in care ethics.
Steph Wilson is a British photographer, working between London and Paris. Working in fashion and editorial photography, she has previously worked for notable brands such as Mugler, Simone Rocha and Nike, and publications including Dazed, I-D and the British Journal of Photography.
Wilson’s ongoing project, Mother Book, seeks to document unconventional and ‘imperfect’ examples of motherhood. In her shortlisted portrait, Wilson captures her eponymous sitter, Sonam, who she met through Instagram following a callout for typical mothers willing to be photographed for the project.
Sonam’s direct and unsmiling gaze, wide-legged sprawl, close-cut hair and moustache make for an unexpectedly masculine image of motherhood. A wig maker by trade, Sonam actually wears a false moustache, not only as a statement of her career but also to call back to instances when friends and family encouraged her to embrace her masculine features. Wilson’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.
This is a portrait of balance, of blending, and of broadening conversations on pregnancy and parenthood, and a visual of individuality and authenticity.
The Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2024 exhibition will also host this year’s In Focus Photographer, Diana Markosian. Since 2015, the In Focus display has showcased new work by acclaimed photographers from around the world, including Hassan Hajjaj, Rinko Kawauchi and Pieter Hugo. This year, photographs by Diana Markosian from her series and new publication Father (Aperture, 2024) have been selected to be shown alongside works in the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize.
Father presents the artist’s journey to another place and another time, where she makes an attempt to piece together an image of a familiar stranger—her long-lost father. The images, made over the course of a decade, are accompanied by prose which further articulates the photographer’s deeply personal story.
“This year’s Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize brings together an auspicious shortlist of artists, reflecting the competition’s global appeal and prestige. We have a longstanding commitment to the prize, which attracts an array of talent in photographic portraiture. The prize is a celebration of that talent, and it has grown harder every year to choose the winners from the huge number of powerful images created by the artists.”
Exhibiting Photographers: Anoush Abrar, Hidhir Badaruddin, Shahid Bashir, Polly Braden, Claire Brand, Laurie Broughton, Kate Brownbill, Jacek Davis, Sophie Ebrard, Adam Ferguson, Drew Gardner, Stas Ginzburg, Kat Green, Charlotte Hadden, Wayne Hanson, Alice Harris, Sarah Mei Herman, Takamasa Honda, Ingvar Kenne, James Clifford Kent, Kovi Konowiecki, Maria Lax, Roo Lewis, Jiayue Li, Toks Majek, Hannah Maule-Ffinch, Tadhg Joseph, Harmen Meinsma, Mayita Mendez, Frankie Mills, Sandra Nagel, Ville Niiranen, Latoya Okuneye, Laura Pannack, Jasmeen Patheja, Patarit Pinyopiphat, Janice Reid, Juanita Richards, Francisco Rosas Rangel, Tanmay Saxena, Phil Sharp, Christian Sinibaldi, Tjitske Sluis, Kun Song, Megan Taylor, Nick Van Tiem, Farren Van Wyk, Mathilde Vieilledent, Jesse Navarre Vos, Madeleine Waller, Yan Wang Preston, Shen Wei, Steph Wilson, Kasia Wozniak, Sam Wright.