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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.

Portrait of a Girl Eating, 2006

by Leyla Stevens

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2007 Finalist

Portrait of a Girl Eating, 2006

There is a certain painting by Rene Magritte titled Young Girl Eating a Bird (1927). A young schoolgirl in a velvet dress edged with lace devours unashamedly a bird, as if it were an apple. My friend Sara has always reminded me of someone belonging to another time in history, with her penchant and obsession for old things. There is a rather fragile beauty to her, and yet like the Magritte painting, a taste for the macabre. Rather than aim for a truthful documentation of Sara, my interest as a photographer is to displace and abstract ordinary gestures into unfamiliar situations. To study minute and private moments, our personal rituals: to examine what happens when people are alone.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2007
(More information, View all 75 photos)

Kim
Dan on Winter Solstice Eve
Thomas Christensen
Rocking the boat

Related information

Lindy Lee - Birth and Death, 2006 by Robert Scott-Mitchell
Lindy Lee - Birth and Death, 2006 by Robert Scott-Mitchell
Lindy Lee - Birth and Death, 2006 by Robert Scott-Mitchell
Lindy Lee - Birth and Death, 2006 by Robert Scott-Mitchell

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2007

Previous exhibition, 2007

Photography is the most pervasive and popular medium for portraiture and makes a natural fit with the Gallery, being a natural extension of the Gallery's longstanding commitment to photography as a contemporary portrait medium.
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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 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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