National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023: Winner announced
18 June 2023
Shea Kirk's photo Ruby (left view) has been named the winner of the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023. The Melbourne-based photographer has won a cash prize of $30,000 plus photographic equipment.
This year's competition received over 2,300 entries, with 47 portraits selected for the 2023 exhibition. The People’s Choice Award will be announced in September.
The judging panel (including distinguished Australian photographer Tamara Dean; Director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Photography Daniel Boetker-Smith; and National Portrait Gallery Senior Curator Joanna Gilmour) described Shea's work as a celebration of photography.
RUBY (LEFT VIEW), 2022, by Shea Kirk. "I've always struggled with the size of my body from being extremely underweight to now being overweight," says Ruby. "Over the past few years working with other photographers, making portraits, I've been processing my feelings about the transformation and how my body fits within society. I've begun to reclaim my skin, by designing symbols about my life so far that I’ve been getting tattooed. I’m starting to feel more at home in my big queer body." This portrait of Ruby is half of a stereoscopic pair from the ongoing project Vantages.
“While Shea makes the portrait look effortless, this is a masterful and technically complex work where the sitter has no self-consciousness," a statement from the judges said. "It is as if the artist and sitter are participating equally in the transaction.”
The Highly Commended Award went to Renae Saxby for her portrait Bangardidjan, of Cindy Rostron on the road in remote Central Arnhem Land.
BANGARDIDJAN, 2022, by Renae Saxby. "Cindy Rostron from Korlobidahdah, a strong inspiring young leader and proud Kune, Rembarrnga, Dalabon woman of the Bonongku and Wurrbban clans, on the road in remote Central Arnhem Land in the family muddikkang (car) with a buffalo skull painted by her father Victor Rostron strapped to the roof."
The Art Handlers' Award was presented to David Cossini for his image Ugandan Ssebabi, 2022.
UGANDAN SSEBABI, 2022, by David Cossini. "Set among the tough slums of Kyazanga, Uganda, Ugandan Ssebabi is a photographic tribute to the world's greatest underdog. Godfrey Baguma, who was born with a rare and painful physical disability, was abandoned by his mother as a bringer of 'bad luck', and shunned by society. Through a chance encounter, he reinvented himself as an entertainer in a travelling show. Now 57, he has beaten the odds. While most people with his condition die by 40, he has found love, success and bought a house – a testament to human resilience and positivity."
