NPG call for entries in Taylor Wessing Photographic Portait Prize 2011

The National Portrait Gallery, located in the heart London, has announced it is calling for entries in the influential Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011. The competition is open to all photographers aged 18 and over and the First Prize winner will receive not only £12,000 but also widespread recognition. The resulting exhibition of work will run at the National Portrait Gallery, London, from 10 November 2011 until 12 February 2012. One of the exhibiting photographers will also be selected to shoot a feature story for ELLE magazine, at standard commissioning rates and expenses. Please see below for more details, including the entry submission criteria.

UPDATE 16 May 2011, the entry fee for the competition is £23 ($37) per photograph. All entry forms must be received in advance, either online or by post, by 7 July 2011

Press release:

 
10 May 2011
 
CALL FOR ENTRIES - TAYLOR WESSING PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PRIZE 2011
 
The National Portrait Gallery is delighted to announce the Call for Entries for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011, a major international photographic award. Entry forms are now available and the closing date for entries is 7 July 2011. To enter, visit www.npg.org.uk/photoprize and complete the online application form.
 
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011 is open to all photographers over the age of 18 and provides an important platform for portrait photographers including gifted amateurs, students and professionals of all ages. Around 60 photographers will be selected for the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, and the winner of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011 will receive £12,000. The exhibition will run at the National Portrait Gallery, London, from 10 November 2011 until 12 February 2012.
 
For the third year running ELLE magazine will commission a photographer selected for the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize exhibition to shoot a feature story for the magazine. Clare Shilland won the second ELLE Commission in 2010 for her portrait Merel.
 
Last year the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize attracted nearly 6,000 entries and was won by David Chancellor, for his portrait Huntress with Buck. Prizes were also awarded to Panayiotis Lamprou, Jeffrey Stockbridge and Abbie Trayler-Smith.
 
Tim Eyles, Managing Partner of Taylor Wessing says:
‘We are delighted to continue our sponsorship of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize and we look forward to further strengthening our relationship with the National Portrait Gallery. As a multi-jurisdictional law firm we are proud to support an international competition that reflects our own firm-wide commitment to developing talent and supporting the arts, and which provides such pleasure and inspiration to those who take part and visit the exhibition. We hope that amateur and professional photographers internationally will be inspired to submit their entries to make this year’s competition the best yet.’
 
Publication
A 72 page catalogue (RRP £15) featuring all the selected photographs will accompany the exhibition.
 
Notes to Editors
    ▪    Call for entries information may be downloaded at www.npg.org.uk/photoprize or by sending a stamped addressed A4 envelope to:
 
Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011
National Portrait Gallery
St Martin's Place
London
WC2H OHE
 
    •    The First Prize winner receives £12,000. In addition the judges, at their discretion, will award one or more cash prizes to the shortlisted photographers.
 
    •    ELLE magazine will choose one photographer selected for the exhibition to shoot a feature story. They will pay standard commissioning rates and expenses to the photographer chosen. ELLE is the world’s biggest-selling fashion magazine with 39 editions worldwide. The British edition of ELLE sells 195,455 copies a month (ABC January-December 2009). The Gallery is very grateful to ELLE magazine for their collaboration. www.elleuk.com

Three Middlesex University students win place in Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize exhibition at NPG

The Solitude of Pygmalion (c) 2010, Steve Barrett

Untitlled (c) 2010, Bar Am-David

It doesn’t matter who you sleep with (c) 2010, Rokas Darulis

Middlesex University has seen three of its photography students win a place in this years prestigious Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize photography competition at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

 

Press release:

Three Middlesex University students in Taylor Wessing Prize Exhibition
Greek mythology, Israeli/Arab relations and homophobia the subjects tackled in the three powerful entries

Middlesex University photography students continue to excel with three winning a place in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) as part of the prestigious Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize photography exhibition.The Taylor Wessing Prize brings together the best portrait photography each year in a three month exhibition at the central London gallery.  This year, more than 2,400 photographers  entered almost 6,000 images. Steve Barritt, Bar Am-David and Rokas Darulis were among just 60 whose work was chosen to appear in the gallery. 

Last year, Middlesex was represented by two students at the Taylor Wessing Prize, one of whom was Steve, originally from Cubert, near Newquay. This year he submitted an image which was part of his final MA degree project.  The project, a series of contemporary retellings of ancient Greek myths, saw Steve having to gain and lose weight, let his hair grow and even not wash for a week, as he made himself the central character in each shot. His chosen image was “The Solitude of Pygmalion”  based on the myth of the sculptor who fell in love with his sculpture.  It shows Steve sitting naked on a bed in an untidy room, with walls covered in posters and magazine articles on Britney Spears. He said: “I made a lot of effort putting on lots of weight and letting myself go, even resorting to not washing for weeks.  One of the later ones was a model and a footballer so I had to lose the weight again, it was tough. “For the Middlesex MA they give you a lot of space, you come up with a project idea and they support you as you bring it together.”

Bar Am-David flew to Jaffa in Israel for his final year project on his BA photography course.  The 25 year-old, who graduated from Middlesex’s BA Photography degree in July and is now based in Camden, will have his photo of an Israeli soldier exhibited at the NPG.  He said: “I’m originally from Israel and I have a special connection with the country.  Jaffa is the only place in the whole of Israel that Israeli people and Arab people live together in peace. “I’m extremely happy and really didn’t expect to get selected from so many photographers.”

Rokas Darulis graduated from the BA in photography last summer.  His photo is one of a series from his series challenging violent homophobia in his home country, Lithuania, and across Eastern Europe.  The project, “It doesn’t matter who you sleep with”,  is a series of portraits of two people of the same sex in bed. Rokas, 22, now living in Hackney, said: “Last year I sent a couple of images but didn’t get though.  I just promised myself to apply every year until I made it.  I was extremely excited when I found out. “Being at Middlesex helped me a lot, my final project was based on portraiture and this project is a similar style.”   

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize runs at the National Portrait Gallery until 20 February 2011. Admission is £2, free for Gallery Supporters.

Winner of Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 announced

The winner of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 has been won by David Chancellor, 49, for his portrait, Huntress with Buck. The £12,000 ($20,000) award was announced at the National Portrait Gallery in London, England, last night.

Press Release
 
10 November 2010
 
PORTRAIT OF TEENAGE HUNTER WINS TOP PHOTO PRIZE
 
Winner of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 announced at the National Portrait Gallery
 
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 has been won by David Chancellor, 49, for his portrait, Huntress with Buck, of 14 year old Josie Slaughter from Alabama on her first hunting trip to South Africa. He says: ‘Josie had hunted her buck earlier in the day and was returning to camp. As we arrived, the sun set below the cloud cover and I had almost unreal light for around a minute. The contrast between the peace and tranquillity of the location, plus Josie’s ethereal beauty and the dead buck, was what I wanted to explore. Here was a vulnerability and yet also a strength.’
 
The £12,000 award was presented to Chancellor at the National Portrait Gallery, London, last night (Tuesday 9 November). The portrait is from his project documenting hunters, the hunted and spaces associated with hunting. He says: ‘As a child I was fascinated by the tales of Colonel Jim Corbett hunting man-eating tigers in India. As an art student it was Peter Beard's seminal work The End of the Game that fascinated and inspired. This work will seek to explore the intricate and complex relationship between man and animals and how both struggle to adapt to their changing environments.’
 
Chancellor spent two days with the 14 year old and her family, shooting Kodak 160VC 120 film on a Mamiya 7 II camera. The painterly quality of light is a striking component of Chancellor’s winning entry. ‘I’ve always been interested in Africa; it’s impossible not to be inspired by the place,’ he says. ‘Once you are bitten by the continent you never recover. And for an artist or photographer, the light is indescribable.’ While Chancellor acknowledges that hunting is an emotive subject, he stresses the importance of remaining objective in his reportage. ‘The aim is always to be detached’, he says. ‘In reality that’s rarely possible, but I do hope I can observe without an agenda and without the necessity to shout.’

Born in Solihull in 1961, Chancellor inherited his interest in photography from his father, a keen amateur photographer, and started taking photographs of his boyhood passions: wildlife and motorsport. After an unfulfilling early career in banking, he studied photography at Kent Institute of Art and Design. Now based in both London and Cape Town, he shoots documentary reportage and portraiture for a range of clients, and regularly works on projects for Non-Governmental Organisations. Named Nikon Press Photographer of the Year three times, he also received a World Press Photo Award earlier this year, and a study of his wife and son was exhibited in last year’s Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize.

The following artists have also been commended in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 and receive the following prizes:
£3,000 Second Prize: Panayiotis Lamprou for Portrait of my British wife from the series Human Presence

 

Born in Athens in 1975, Panayiotis Lamprou, was introduced to photography at the ‘Photography Circle’ in Athens in 1998, where he studied under Platon Rivellis.  He went on to study further at the Centro di Ricerca e Archiviazione della Fotografia in Spilimbergo, Italy.  His shortlisted portrait of his wife was not originally intended for public display, and was taken at the couple’s summerhouse on the small island of Schinousa in the Aegean Sea on a hot summer’s day. Lamprou says: ‘I never showed it to anyone. Only she knew about it. When she saw it she said that even if it wasn't a nude the photograph has the same power to express. I can describe the portrait as Independence and Love, Devotion and Freedom.’ His work has been included in numerous publications and sixteen exhibitions throughout Europe, and this will be the first time that his work has been on display in the UK.

2,000 Third Prize: Jeffrey Stockbridge for Tic Tac and Tootsie (twin sisters Carroll and Shelly McKean) from the series Nowhere but Here

Jeffrey Stockbridge, born 1982 in Woodbine, Maryland, moved to Philadelphia to study photography at Drexel University in 2002. Stockbridge’s shortlisted photograph is of Tic Tac and Tootsie, 20-year-old twin sisters Carroll and Shelly McKean taken in Kensington, North Philadelphia. The twin sisters, who live on the street and suffer from insomnia, are both addicted to Xanex and have resorted to prostitution to supply their habit. Stockbridge says: ‘Enduring unthinkable pain on a daily basis, the sisters are both incredibly strong and weak at the same time. Caught in the grip of their addiction, they do whatever it takes to survive, except for getting clean.’ Upon graduating in 2005, Stockbridge was placed as runner-up in the New York Times Magazine’s ‘Capture the Times’ photography competition for his series on abandoned houses in Philadelphia, titled Occupied. He has exhibited widely in the US since graduation, and received many grants and awards for his projects documenting urban blight in Philadelphia.
 
£1,000 Fourth Prize Abbie Trayler-Smith for Untitled 2 from the series Childhood Obesity

Born in South Wales in 1977, Abbie Trayler-Smith studied law at Kings College, London while taking photographs for the student newspaper. Self-trained, she went on to work as a photographer for The Daily Telegraph. Her shortlisted portrait was taken on the second meeting with a girl called Chelsea, from Shine, a group in Sheffield which helps teenagers deal with obesity. Trayler-Smith says: ‘Whilst talking about how it feels to live with the prejudices that come with being overweight, I looked away to change the film in my camera. When I looked back the picture was suddenly there. I shot one frame.’ Trayler-Smith has worked for Time Magazine, GEO, Marie Claire, Tatler, Guardian Weekend, Oxfam, UNICEF and BBC Worldwide among others. Her project on asylum seekers in the UK, Still Human, Still Here, was exhibited at HOST Gallery, London, in 2009 with an accompanying film which won both the Nikon Award 2009 and the PPY Best Multimedia Piece 2009. She joined Panos Pictures in 2007, and became a member of Panos Profile in 2010.

The ELLE COMMISSION
 
The winner of the ELLE Commission 2010 is Clare Shilland, 36, for her portrait Merel. Shilland will be given the opportunity to shoot a feature story for ELLE magazine. Now in its second year, the ELLE Commission was judged by the fashion magazine’s editor-in-chief, Lorraine Candy, together with the art director, Tom Meredith, and picture editor, Hannah Ridley.
 
Shilland, from South London, met Merel in Milan when she shot her for an Italian magazine and later asked her if she could photograph her for her exhibition Girls! Girls! Girls! She says: ‘The concept was that it would be a combination of female nudes and female drummers. I asked Merel if I could photograph her for it and she agreed. I travelled to Antwerp where she lives and we spent a few days there taking pictures. One day we rode bicycles out of the city to some woods and fields - that is where I took this picture.’

Shilland studied at Camberwell College of Arts and the Royal College of Art. She has shot for clients including Marni, Hardy Amies, Warner Music, Lyle & Scott and H&M, and her photographs have been published in i-D, Italian Rolling Stone, GQ Style and Teen Vogue amongst others.

This is the third year that the law firm, Taylor Wessing LLP, have sponsored the Prize.
 
The judges selected 60 portraits for the exhibition from nearly 6000 submissions entered by 2,401 photographers from around the world.
 
Sandy Nairne, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, says: ‘David Chancellor’s Huntress with Buck is a powerful and beautiful portrait; a worthy winner amidst a strong international submission.’
 
Tim Eyles, Managing Partner of international law firm Taylor Wessing says: 'As ever, Taylor Wessing is immensely proud to be associated with the Photographic Portrait Prize. Congratulations to all whose images feature in this year's exhibition and particularly to this year's winner David Chancellor.’
 
Lorraine Candy, Editor-in-Chief of ELLE magazine says: ‘Whether it’s new designers, models or photographers, discovering and supporting emerging talent is part of ELLE’s heritage. So it has been an honour for us to work with the National Portrait Gallery on this prestigious photography competition. Entries were strong but we decided on Claire Shilland’s portrait because of her evident ability to capture a striking scene with remarkable technical skill. The lighting captured is wonderful and is of the same calibre of photography that you would find in our magazine.’
 
EXHIBITION AND TOUR
The exhibition will run at the National Portrait Gallery, London, from 11 November 2010 until 20 February 2011, admission £2, before touring to The Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens from 16 April until 26 June 2011.
 
PUBLICATION
A fully illustrated book including photographs from this year’s exhibition features an essay by Lucy Davies, (Photography Critic, The Telegraph, Picture Editor, Sunday Telegraph SEVEN Magazine, Editor Telephoto), and interviews with the prize winners by Richard McClure. Price £15. (Available from 11 November 2010)