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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023

Previous exhibition
from Saturday 17 June until Monday 2 October 2023

Currently touring: Bundaberg Regional Galleries
Friday 16th February until Sunday 5th May 2024

Ruby (left view), 2022 Shea Kirk
Ruby (left view), 2022 Shea Kirk

The National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects. The winner for 2023 is

Ruby (left view), 2022 by Shea Kirk

In making their decision, the judging panel - distinguished Australian photographer Tamara Dean; Director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Photography Daniel Boetker-Smith; and our Senior Curator Joanna Gilmour – said the work was a celebration of photography. “While Shea makes the portrait look effortless, this is a masterful and technically complex work where the sitter has no self-consciousness. It is as if the artist and sitter are participating equally in the transaction.”

The Highly Commended Award goes to Renae Saxby for her portrait Bangardidjan, of Cindy Rostron on the road in remote Central Arnhem Land in the family muddikkang (car).

The Art Handlers' Award goes to Ugandan Ssebabi, 2022 by David Cossini.

The People's Choice Award goes to KAHA, 2022 by Bruce Agnew.

The judges found it very difficult to narrow down the selected 47 portraits from over 2,300 entries. We would like to thank everyone who submitted photographs for the Prize.

Prizes

The winner will nab a $30,000 cash prize from us AND photographic equipment courtesy of our Imaging Partner, Canon Australia. There are other wonderful prizes too, including Highly Commended supported by EIZO, an Art Handlers' Award thanks to IAS Fine Art Logistics, and the People’s Choice Award, generously supported by the Calvert-Jones Foundation.

47 NPPP 2023 portraits

1 Bangardidjan, 2022 Renae Saxby. 2 KAHA, 2022 Bruce Agnew. 3 Ugandan Ssebabi, 2022 David Cossini. 4 Portrait of Zachary, 2023 Grace Costa.

Related people

Joanna Gilmour (curator)

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
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Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

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