© National Portrait Gallery 2026
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2026 Finalist
‘This portrait of Ettael is a double exposure diptych taken while researching family trees, queerness, toxicity and healing. Each photograph was exposed across two sites: the decommissioned Nufarm Factory in Fawkner, Victoria, along the banks of the Merri Creek, and the AIDS Memorial Garden outside the old Infectious Diseases Hospital in Fairfield. These sites of toxicity, death, contamination, grief, and now regeneration, are places we feel compelled to photograph, care and make from. The double exposure resists imagined enclosure, countering the idea that supposedly containable units of one’s family, body, identity and history are sealed in some way.’
Artists Abbra Kotlarczyk and Briony Galligan live and work on Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung Country in Naarm/Melbourne. They collaborate to create works that explore the realities of labour, care and ecology within the queer experience.
The People’s Choice Award is generously supported by the Calvert-Jones Foundation, with the artist who wins the most votes receiving $10,000.
Voting closes Wednesday 30 September 2026.
from Saturday 22 August
The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2026 marks the end of one of the Gallery’s longest-running exhibitions.
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