Thursday, September 06, 2012

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012 - Shortlist announced

The four photographers who have had photographic portraits shortlisted for the £12,000 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012 are:
See my previous post Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012: Call for Entries for more details about the call for entries and details of what was admissable.  More details about the Prize, the chances of getting selected and the exhibition details are at the end of this post.

Shortlisted Photographic Portraits

All their websites have much larger versions of the shortlisted portraits.

Alma Haser for The Ventriloquist

The Ventriloquist by Alma Haser
© Alma Haser
Age: b. 1989
Nationality: German (moved to UK in 1995)
Current home: UK
Art education: BA in Photography from Nottingham Trent University
Exhibitions: her work has featured in 10 exhibitions internationally
Previous prizes: Chosen by the British Journal of Photography as one of the four best graduates of 2010; third place in the People’s Choice at Foto8 Summer Show 2012
Website: http://www.haser.org/ (which has a much larger image of the shortlisted portrait)
Subject:  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.’ 

Spencer Murphy for Mark Rylance
Mark Rylance by Spencer Murphy
© Spencer Murphy

Age: b. 1978 (Kent)
Nationality: British
Current home:
Art educationBA in Photography at the Falmouth College of Arts.  Also studied at the Kent Institute of Art and Design.
Exhibitionswork has been exhibited internationally - including six times in the TaylorWessing Photographic Portrait Prize 
Previous prizesshortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards in both 2010 and 2011 and a recipient of many awards
Websitehttp://www.spencermurphy.co.uk
Blog: http://spencermurphy.tumblr.com
Subject:  actor Mark Rylance.  This was a commission 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.’

Jennifer Pattison for Lynne, Brighton


Lynn, Brighton by Jennifer Pattison
© Jennifer Pattison
Age: b. 1978 (Hertfordshire)
Nationality: British
Current home: UK
Art education: BA in Photography at the London College of Printing
Websitehttp://www.jennifer-pattison.com
Career: Photographic agent and producer. Pattison has worked for many photographers including David Sims and interned in the photographs department at the Victoria & Albert Museum
Subject: her friend Lynne.  The portrait was shot 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.’ 

Jordi Ruiz Cirera for Maria Teichroeb

Maria Teichroeb by Jordi Ruiz Cirera
© Jordi Ruiz Cirera
Age: b. 1984
Nationality: Spanish
Current home: UK
Art education: MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication; plus studied Design at Elisava College, Barcelona
Exhibitions: work has been included in numerous exhibitions
Previous prizes: AOP Student Awards; the Deutsche Bank Award in Photography.
Websitehttp://www.jordiruizcirera.com
Subject: Maria, a Mennonite from the Swift Current Colony in Bolivia.  His shortlisted portrait is part of his long term project portraying the daily life of this community. He says of the process
‘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 Maria, 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, Maria posed with this sort of awkward expression’. 

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize

This major international prize for portrait photography is sponsored by the law firm Taylor Wessing - hence the name!  The aim of the prize is to....
showcase the work of some of the most talented emerging young photographers, alongside that of established professionals, photography students and gifted amateurs.
Prizes: The First Prize winner receives £12,000; Second Prize £3,000; Third Prize £2,000 and Fourth Prize, £1,000.  Prizewinners will be announced on 5th November.

The John Kobal New Work Award is new for 2012.  This cash prize of £4,000 will be awarded to a photographer under the age of 30 selected for the exhibition. The winning photographer will undertake a commission from the NPG to photograph a sitter connected with the UK film industry.

Selected photographers: Those selected for the exhibition associated with this open competition are chosen from anonymous submissions.  The entry is typically international and crosses all genres of portrait photography.

The judges have selected 60 portraits for the The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012  exhibition from 5,340 submissions entered by 2,352 photographers.  I've done the sums and that means:
  • a photographer typically submitted an average of 2.27 photographic portraits
  • those works selected for the exhibition represent 1.12% of the total submissions.
The competition was judged from original prints by:
  • Emma Hardy, Photographer, Lauren Heinz, Director, Foto8, 
  • Glyn Morgan, Partner, Taylor Wessing LLP, 
  • Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery (Chair);
  • Sean O’Hagan, Writer on Photography for the Observer and the Guardian 
  • Terence Pepper, Curator of Photographs, National Portrait Gallery
The John Kobal New Work Award was judged by Simon Crocker, Chairman of the John Kobal Foundation, and writer and journalist Liz Jobey, a Trustee of the John Kobal Foundation.

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012 Exhibition will run from 8 November 2012 – 17 February 2013 in the Porter Gallery at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Admission £2

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