£15,000 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2016 - Call for Entries

From painting portraits of people to photographing people as portraits...

This post is about the Call for Entries for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2016.  The competition is open to anyone aged 18 years old or older. The First Prize is £15,000 and the exhibition displays some of very best contemporary portrait photographs by photographers from all around the world.

It's an exhibition I very much enjoy seeing every year and the standard is very high. No wonder then that it attracts entries from lots of different countries

Below I've highlighted a summary of what you need to know to enter - and the links to the full terms and conditions of entry and how to register and submit your entry.

The deadline for submission of entries is 23.59 on Tuesday 5 July 2016.

The exhibition for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2016 will run at the National Portrait Gallery from 17 November 2016 to 26 February 2017. It will then tour to venues around the UK.
The photos in this post are of works selected for the exhibition last year. You can see the prizewinning photos in my reviews of the prizewinners and exhibitions in the posts listed at the end.

Faces from the exhibition

Eligibility

Who can enter?

Photographer must:

• be 18 years of age or over as at 1 January 2015
• not be a previous winner of the Prize (like BP Portrait Award you are no longer eligible to enter if you win)

Some of the photographic portraits are of famous people
These typically are taken while on an assignment

What photographs are eligible?

What's interesting about this competition is it provides us with a definition of a photo.

It's a requirement that all photos entered must be portraits and it defines a portrait as follows

‘Portrait’ may be interpreted in its widest sense, of ‘photography concerned with portraying people with an emphasis on their identity as individuals’.

This is a link to the 2016 Rules

Other requirements of the work are that it should be:

• the photographer's own work
• must have been taken from life - and with a living sitter after 1 January 2015 (you can be asked for evidence of this)
• must be unmounted and on paper
• must not be larger than 1015 x 760mm
• must not be more than 20kilos in weight
• must be submitted in a transparent protective sleeve
• must be able to supply a written and completed model release
• must come with clearance of all rights associated with the subject matter contained in the photo (this is the one line summary - there's a big paragraph for this one!)
• must be able to provide a Tiff file of their photograph (minimum of 350dpi, 4800 pixels on the shortest side) for use in the catalogue and exhibition marketing campaign .

Options are that:

• you can submit up to six photographs.
• the photo can be black and white or colour
• photos can be individual portraits or portraits in a series

Interestingly almost all the photos I have seen that have won this Prize have been part of a series.

All photographs are mounted and framed by the National Portrait Gallery so that the exhibition looks coherent. You can see the mounts and frames in the pictures in this post.

Photographs  of children with/and without artificial limbs and orthotics by Kai Wiedenhofer
for his project "Forty out of one million" which focuses on the human cost of the Syrian War
and the fate of refugees who have fled Syria.
(This is the brochure of the exhibition)

How to Enter

• Entry is by digital submission only. Postal entries are no longer accepted. 
• A non-refundable entry fee of £28 per photograph is charged.
• All submissions must be made online via the website no later than 23.59 on Tuesday 5 July 2016.
• You are told where to send your photographs only after you have registered. 
• Your entry - of original prints conforming to criteria for eligibility must arrive at the specified delivery point between Monday 18 July – Thursday 28 July 2016.

The National Portrait Gallery will not arrange courier collections on behalf of the artist or be liable for any fees associated with these.

More about Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize

A view of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize Exhibition 2015 showing three prizewinners

The posts below contain images of past prizewinning portraits.

• Prizewinners - Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Competition 2015
• David Titlow wins Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2014
• Spencer Murphy wins Taylor Wessing Photographic Prize 2013
• Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2013 - Shortlist announced
• Review: Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012
• Review: Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011 
• Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 - prizewinners