exhibition

National Portrait Gallery

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2021

Hosted by: National Portrait Gallery

Exhibition:

This exhibition has already taken place

What's On / Past exhibitions / Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2021

Past Exhibition Information

Nov. 10, 2021 - Dec. 23, 2021

Pavillion Gallery

National Portrait Gallery

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize is one of the most prestigious photography awards in the world, celebrating the very best in contemporary portrait photography.

This year the exhibition will take place at Cromwell Place while the National Portrait Gallery building in St Martin’s Place is closed for major redevelopment work.

The exhibition showcases new work submitted by contemporary photographers, with a winner taking away first prize of £15,000. Three international photographers have been shortlisted for this year's prize, with the winner announced on Monday 8 November, 2021. The three shortlisted photographers are:

  • Katya Ilina for her portrait David, which examines body positivity in masculinity and celebrates gender in its fluid physical form.
  • Pierre-Elie de Pibrac for his series of portraits Hakanai Sonzai, taken in some of Japan’s most troubled regions and focusing on people who exhibited fortitude in the face of adversity. 
  • David Prichard for Tribute to Indigenous Stock Women, his series of portraits of First Nation women who have spent most of their working lives as stock women on cattle stations in Queensland, Australia.

The prize-winning photographs and those selected for inclusion in the exhibition were chosen from 5,392 submissions entered by 2,215 photographers from 62 countries. A total of 55 portraits from 26 artists have been selected for display. Judged anonymously, the diversity of styles in the exhibition reflects the international mix of entries as well as photographers’ individual and varied approaches to the genre of portraiture. Photographers were again encouraged to submit works as a series in addition to stand-alone portraits. 

 

Purchase your tickets now

NOTE: This exhibition is ticked by the National Portrait Gallery, with direct access via our Thurloe Place entrance. Once you have purchased your tickets via the NPG's website in the link above, this admission will also grant access to the remainder of the Cromwell Place exhibition programme. 

 

Exhibiting Photographers
Kymara Akinpelumi
Todd Antony
Delali Ayivi 
Hady Barry
Alexander Beer
Polly Braden
Sadie Catt
Tino Chiwariro
Pierre-Elie de Pibrac
Tori Ferenc
Lauren Forster 
Katya Ilina
Philippa James
Priya Kambli
Tony Kearney
Jenny Lewis
Kois Miah
Fumi Nagasaka
Olufemi David Olaiya
David Prichard
Aisha Seriki
Christian Sinibaldi
Donavon Smallwood
Joseph P Smith
Lisa Sorgini
Anastasia Taylor-Lind

 

Images 

  1. David Prichard
  2. Katya Ilina
  3. Pierre-Elie de Pibrac

This Cromwell Place exhibition has already taken place

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About the Hosts

National Portrait Gallery

National Portrait Gallery

London's National Portrait Gallery (NPG) houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was the first portrait gallery in the world when it opened in 1856. The gallery moved in 1896 to its current site at St Martin's Place, off Trafalgar Square, and adjoining the National Gallery.

The gallery houses portraits of historically important and famous British people, selected on the basis of the significance of the sitter, not that of the artist. The collection includes photographs and caricatures as well as paintings, drawings and sculpture. 

In addition to its permanent galleries of historical portraits, the National Portrait Gallery exhibits a rapidly changing selection of contemporary work, stages exhibitions of portrait art by individual artists and hosts the annual BP Portrait Prize competition.