The Portrait - The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize
A Brief History of Taylor Wessing and The Photographic Portrait Prize:
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize is the leading international competition which celebrates and promotes the very best in contemporary portrait photography. Hosted by The National Portrait Gallery, the name of this competition comes from its sponsor, Taylor Wessing: an international law firm founded in 2002 with 28 offices across the globe, with over 300 partners and over 1000 lawyers worldwide. The firm's relationship with the gallery began in 2005, with their sponsorship of The World's Most Photographed, but it wasn't until 2008 that they began sponsoring the Photographic Portrait Prize. Prior to the Taylor Wessing sponsorship in 2008, the prize had also been known as the Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize between the years 2003, when the prize was established, and 2005. In the years 2006 and 2007, the prize was simply named the Photographic Portrait Prize.
About The Prize:
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize is an open competition accepting submissions from photographers, ranging between amateur to professional, from anywhere in the world. Annually, the prize receives around 6,000 submissions, and of those 6,000 submissions, 60 photographs are chosen for exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery between November and February. A shortlist of four photographers receive a cash prize, alongside the great publicity of their work. In addition to the main prize, there is an independently sponsored prize for a specific category.
What is a Portrait?
Portrait photography, or portraiture, is a style of photography with the sole purpose of capturing the personality of a person or group of people using a range of tools and techniques like lighting, props and backdrops, and poses. Photographers will often use a range of lighting techniques to set a specific mood within a shoot, and props to convey a narrative or emphasise character.
Ideas, Issues and Outcome:
My initial plan for this project was to capture my grandparents inside their home from the outside. I wanted to capture their emotion and how the covid-19 pandemic has affected them. A second yet similar idea was to capture some close friends of mine who are essential workers. Similar to my first idea, I wanted to capture their emotion and how they too have been affected by the pandemic. However, I was unable to continue with either of these ideas due to the nationwide lockdown that occurred at the beginning of November.
Following my initial ideas, I wanted to flip the narrative and show what little impact covid-19 has had on some people. Specifically, for this project, my cousin and his young daughter. I was able to take photographs of the two subjects at a distance, whilst also capturing their relationship as a father and daughter.
Sources:
A Brief History of Taylor Wessing and The Photographic Portrait Prize, About The Prize:
https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/taylor-wessing-photographic-portrait-prize-2020/exhibition/
