National Portrait Gallery
WINNER ANNOUNCED – TAYLOR WESSING PHOTGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PRIZE 2011
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011 has been won by Jooney Woodward, 32, for her portrait, Harriet and Gentleman Jack. The portrait of 13 year old Harriet Power was taken in the guinea pig judging area at the Royal Welsh Show. Woodward says, ‘I found her image immediately striking with her long red hair and white stewarding coat. She is holding her own guinea pig called Gentleman Jack, named after the Jack Daniel’s whisky box in which he was given to her. Using natural light from a skylight above, I took just three frames and this image was the first.’
The £12,000 award was presented to Woodward at the National Portrait Gallery, London, on Tuesday 8 November. She found her sitter whilst scouting for potential subject matter amongst the sheepdog trials, livestock competitions and regimental bands at the agricultural show in Builth Wells, Powys. The portrait was shot on film with a Mamiya RZ medium format camera. Woodward says, ‘I prefer the quality and depth you get from using film; unfortunately it’s a dying art. I don’t mess around with Photoshop so what you see is what you get. Enhanced images can portray a false sense of reality, whereas my work celebrates the people and places as they appear every day’.
Born in London in 1979, Woodward grew up in Dorset and returned to the capital to study Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts, specialising in photography in her final year. Her degree show portraits of her parents were highly commended in The Observer Hodge Photographic Award in 2001. After graduation Woodward worked in the Vogue Photographic Archive of Conde Nast Publications before pursuing a career as a freelance photographer from 2009. Her series Unhidden: Documentary Photographs of Contemporary Wales was exhibited at MOMA Wales, Machynlleth, in 2010. She says ‘My landscapes are generally devoid of people, but are full of signs of life. I try to capture the little things and it’s the same with my portraiture. The more you look at the portrait of Harriet, the more you notice the small details: her nail polish and mascara, the scratch on her hand.’
The following artists have also been commended in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011 and receive the following prizes:
£2,500 Second Prize: Jill Wooster for Of Lili is part of the series portraying women in their forties and fifties at pivotal stages of their lives - Her portrait is of her friend, Lili Ledbetter and was taken at Wooster’s flat in Peckham.
£1,500 Third Prize: Dona Schwartz for Christina and Mark, 14 months from the series On the Nest - Her shortlisted portrait is of Christina and Mark Bigelow from Minnesota in their son’s vacated bedroom.
£1,000 Fourth Prize: Jasper Clarke for Wen from a personal project depicting artists, musicians and other creatives who live in their work spaces – His shortlisted portrait taken in Hackney is of Wen Wu, a Chinese artist.
£500 Fifth Prize: David Night for Andie commissioned by Loud for the Cerebral Palsy Alliance to raise awareness of the condition throughout Australia – His shortlisted portrait is of 15 year-old Andie Poetschka.
This is the fourth year that Taylor Wessing has sponsored the Prize. The judges selected 60 portraits for the exhibition from nearly 6,033 submissions entered by 2,506 photographers from around the world.
The exhibition will run from 10th November 2011 – 12th February 2012 at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
The National Portrait Gallery was founded in 1856 to collect the portraits of famous British men and women. Today the collection is the most comprehensive of its kind in the world, but it needs to raise sufficient funds to build on this, as well as encouraging public access to its works through outreach and educational programmes.
Taylor Wessing has a long-standing relationship with the National Portrait Gallery and we are immensely proud to sponsor the Photographic Portrait Prize, which is one of the most internationally recognised competitions in the photographic world.
Our relationship with the Gallery has grown and evolved since we first sponsored The World’s Most Photographed in 2005. The Photographic Portrait Prize is not about capturing an image of the world’s most photographed. Indeed, you will never know who many of the people in the pictures are and may never see these sights in the course of your everyday life. Each image tells its own story and will inevitably evoke its own reaction.
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011 will showcase the work of some of the most talented emerging young photographers from around the world, alongside that of established professionals, photography students and gifted amateurs. Selected anonymously from an open competition, the diversity of styles reflects the international mix of entrants as well as the range of approaches to the portrait genre, encompassing editorial, advertising and fine art images.
Tim Eyles, Taylor Wessing's Managing Partner says: "We are delighted to continue our sponsorship of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize and we look forward to further strengthening our relationship with the National Portrait Gallery. We hope that amateur and professional photographers alike will be inspired to submit their entries to make this year’s competition the best yet."
The Prize encourages and cultivates new talent, while emphasising the importance of hard work with a forward thinking and creative attitude. These are attributes that we, as an international law firm, also seek to foster and promote. While the legal sector isn’t traditionally associated with creativity, Taylor Wessing is proud to be strongly committed to supporting arts and culture. Our relationship with the National Portrait Gallery’s Photographic Portrait Prize is based on our joint goal to strive for excellence in all that we do, all of the time. Please visit the National Portrait Gallery website.
