40 finalists revealed for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2019

16 November 2018

A total of 40 finalists have been named for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2019. They were selected from over 3,000 entries and whittled down by the judging panel - National Portrait Gallery Senior Curator, Dr Christopher Chapman, artist and esteemed photographer, Hoda Afshar, and Curator of Photography at the National Gallery of Australia, Anne O'Hehir.

“The first stage of the judging process resulted in a long list of several hundred possibilities,” Dr Christopher Chapman said. “Then the judges spent two days of intensive looking to arrive at the final group of 40 finalist photographs for the exhibition. After a lot of discussion, we agreed wholeheartedly on the outstanding quality of the 40 photographic portraits created by the exhibition finalists. These portraits are characterised by an overall sense of assuredness and calm,” he said.

Portrait of Ali, 2014. © Hoda Afshar. Winner of the 2015 National Photographic Portrait Prize.
Portrait of Ali, 2014. © Hoda Afshar. Winner of the 2015 National Photographic Portrait Prize. "Soobatan Village, in northern Iran. It sits in a mountain range so high, it exists above the clouds. They call it ‘the dream of Iran’. In this village, I was told, the cleverest kids are sent to city-schools to be taught; the rest are made to stay, and most become shepherds. Ali was one of them. It was a warm morning. As I was walking, I saw him approaching through the mist that permanently clings to the road. He looked at me and my camera enquiringly. He said very little – mostly one word, over and over: alooche. It means ‘little berry’."
JUDGES: Dr Christopher Chapman, Senior Curator, National Portrait Gallery;
Angus Trumble, Director, National Portrait Gallery; Nikki Toole, guest judge, photographer.

Finalists for 2019

Adam Ferguson, Alan Weedon, Alana Holmberg, Aletheia Casey, Alex Vaughan, Daniel Boetker-Smith, Dave Laslett, Elizabeth Looker, Ingvar Kenne, Isabella Capezio, James Brickwood, Jamila Toderas, Jay Hynes, Jodi McConaghy, Joel Pratley, Jordan Madge, Julian Kingma, Kate Atkinson, Katrin Koenning, Kellie Leczinska, Lee Grant, Lilli Waters, Madeline Bishop, Max Mason-Hubers, Mia McDonald, Michael Murchie, Natalie Nowotarski, Nicholas Garcia, Rachel Peachey, Raphaela Rosella, Rod McNicol, Rosa Spring Voss, Sarah Rhodes, Shea Kirk, Simon Harsent, Stefanie King, Stephen Baccon, Tristan Still, Wouter Van de Voorde, Yask Desai.

The exhibition of the 40 finalist portraits will be displayed at the National Portrait Gallery Canberra from 23 February – 7 April 2019 followed by an exhibition tour.

The Winning and Highly Commended portraits and Art Handlers’ Award will be announced at the launch of the exhibition.

The Winning photographer will receive $30,000 in cash and $22,148 in photographic equipment, including a EOS 1Dx Mark II DSLR camera, courtesy of Canon.

The Highly Commended photographer will receive an EIZO ColorEdge CG2730 27" monitor valued at $3,245, courtesy of EIZO.

The Art Handlers' Award recipient will receive $2,000 cash.

Check out the past winners here...

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