Steph Wilson wins first place in the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2024 for Sonam

Steph Wilson's prize-winning portrait challenges conventional notions of motherhood as part of her ongoing series Ideal Mother.

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Commission to create a work for the National Portrait Gallery's Collection is won by Jesse Navarre Vos for his portrait Mom, I'll follow you still.

The prize-winning portraits will be exhibited alongside the evocative series Father by artist Diana Markosian, and a newly unveiled portrait of clean air advocate and WHO Breathe Life Ambassador Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah CBE by the 2023 winner of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Commission, Serena Brown.

The exhibition will be open from 14 November 2024 until 16 February 2025 at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

London-based photographer Steph Wilson has won first prize in the prestigious Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2024 for her portrait Sonam.

Second prize was awarded to Adam Ferguson for Kukatja Pintupi boy Matthew West, hunting trip, Wirrimanu/Balgo, Kukatja Country, Western Australia, 2023; Pintupi-Luritja Lutheran Pastor Simon Dixon, Ikuntji/Haast Bluff, Arrernte Country, Northern Territory, 2023; and Cousin sisters Shauna and Bridget Perdjert, Kardu Thithay Diminin Clan and Murrinhpatha language group, Kardu Yek Diminin Country, Air Force Hill, Wadeye, Northern Territory, 2023 – all from the series Big Sky. Third prize was awarded to Tjitske Sluis for Mom from the series Out of Love, Out of Necessity. The Taylor Wessing Photographic Commision was awarded to Jesse Navarre Vos for Mom, I’ll follow you still – from the series I’ll come following you.

The winning portraits are now on display as part of the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2024 exhibition which celebrates its 17th year at the Gallery. The 2024 judging panel included multimedia artist Pogus Caesar; curator Alona Pardo; writer and curator Lou Stoppard; and the National Portrait
Gallery’s Curator of Photography Clare Freestone.

Alongside the monetary prizes for first, second and third place, a commission to the value of £8,000 will be awarded to one of the shortlisted photographers. Supported by Taylor Wessing, the chosen photographer will create an artwork that will form part of the world’s largest collection of portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery. Serena Brown, winner of the inaugural commission prize in 2023, will unveil her new portrait for the Collection at this year’s award ceremony in November.

First Prize £15,000: Steph Wilson

Sonam by Steph Wilson from the series Ideal Mother, 2023 © Steph Wilson.

Steph Wilson is a British photographer, working between London and Paris. Working in fashion and editorial photography, she has previously worked for notable brands such as Mugler, Simone Rocha and Nike, and publications including Dazed, i-D, and the British Journal of Photography.

Wilson's ongoing project Ideal Mother seeks to document unconventional and 'imperfect' examples of motherhood. In her shortlisted portrait, Wilson captures her eponymous sitter, Sonam, who she met through Instagram following a callout for a-typical mothers willing to be photographed for the project.

Sonam's direct and unsmiling gaze, wide legged spawl, close cut hair and moustache make for an unexpectedly masculine image of motherhood. A wig maker by trade, Sonam actually wears a false moustache, not only as a statement to her career, but also to call back to instances when she was encouraged to embrace her masculine features by friends and family. Wilson's ambition was to present sitters as more than just mothers, referring to all elements that contribute towards a whole person, capable of many achievements.

This is a portrait of balance, of blending, and of broadening conversations on pregnancy and parenthood, and a visual of individuality and authenticity. The judges felt this portrait was instantly eye-catching and challenges audience assumptions made on an initial reading of the portrait. The relationship between Sonam and her baby, and the details revealing elements of her personality, are just some of the many layers of understanding in this image.

Second Prize £3,000: Adam Ferguson

L-R: Pintupi-Luritja Lutheran Pastor Simon Dixon, Ikuntji/Haast Bluff, Arrernte Country, Northern Territory by Adam Ferguson from the series Big Sky, 2023 © Adam Ferguson; Cousin sisters Shauna and Bridget Perdjert, Kardu Thithay Diminin Clan and Murrinhpatha language group, Kardu Yek Diminin Country, Air Force Hill, Wadeye, Northern Territory, 2023 by Adam Ferguson from the series Big Sky, 2023 © Adam Ferguson; Kukatja Pintupi boy Matthew West, hunting trip, Wirrimanu/Balgo, Kukatja Country, Western Australia, 2023 © Adam Ferguson.

Adam Ferguson is an Australian photographer based in New York. He holds a Bachelor of Photography from Queensland College of Art, and is currently a candidate for a Master of Fine Arts from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology School of Art. His work has been widely exhibited, including as part of the National Photographic Portrait Prize for the National Portrait Gallery of Australia and at the Sony World Photography Awards. Work from his series Migrantes was exhibited in the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize in 2022.

Ferguson’s three shortlisted portraits were captured during extended journeys into the Northern Territory and Western Australia, made for his project and new book Big Sky (Gost Books, 2024). Made over a ten year period, the series depicts the impact of globalisation and climate change, in addition to the colonial legacy which underpins modern Australia against the backdrop of the romanticised Outback.

Pintupi Luritja, Lutheran Pastor Simon Dixon was made in collaboration with the sitter, Simon Dixon, and his local church after Ferguson met the pastor at an Easter service in Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory. The Lutheran missionaries who established Christian communities in this remote part of the country a century ago transformed the nomadic life of indigenous populations. Ferguson intentionally juxtaposes the exalting pastor in his robes with the uncultivated landscape behind.

These contrasts continue in Cousin sisters Shauna and Bridget Perdjert and Hunting Trip. The former features two young indigenous women – Shauna (left) and Bridget (right) – sitting overlooking the vast bush landscape, wearing t-shirts emblazoned with global popstar, Taylor Swift. The photograph explores the tension between the romantic fantasies of the Outback depicted in history and popular culture, with encroaching commercialisation. In Kukatja Pintupi boy Matthew West, hunting trip, Ferguson records an indigenous kangaroo hunt near the remote community of Balgo, using the hunt as a metaphor through which to critique the destruction inflicted across Australia by Western settlers.

The judges felt this series was compelling and engaging, juxtaposing elements of contemporary life with Indigenous culture. These direct and challenging images reveal the photographer’s deep understanding of the reality of community life in the Outback.

Third Prize £2,000: Tjitske Sluis

Mom by Tjitske Sluis from the series Out of Love, Out of Necessity, 2023 © Tjitske Sluis.

Tjitske Sluis is a Dutch photographer based in Utrecht, who came to photography through journalism. At the Dutch newspaper Dagblad De Limburger, she found herself drawn to the storytelling power of photographs, developing a career in reportage before going freelance as a documentary photographer.

Sluis’ moving series Out of Love, Out of Necessity documents the photographer’s mother during the final stages of her life, while Sluis cared for her. Sluis’ camera became an important coping device during this period of grief and disorientation and her mother, Teuntje, found a tension-relieving humour in being photographed as they created the series together. The series is about vulnerability, transience and learning how to cope with the death of a loved one, capturing tender, intimate moments.

Sluis’ portrait Mom depicts her sleeping mother - afloat on a sea of floral duvet – and speaks to the deep trust and understanding between them. Tender details reflect Teuntje’s mental resilience in the face of declining physical health. Despite her frail form, Teuntje’s “infectious spirit” is echoed through her bold lip-patterned jumper and the dog’s bright eyes. Teuntje passed away at home, just a few days after the portrait was taken. Sluis’ series also engages with the ongoing care crisis in the Netherlands, and when initially published in De Volkskrant newspaper, it prompted a debate in Dutch parliament about this critical issue. Empowered to use her photography to bring about meaningful change, Sluis is now pursuing a master’s degree in care ethics.

The judges felt the deep compassion in the relationship between artist and sitter, moving between their personal connection and the human condition. The dog’s bright eyes draw the viewers gaze and invite closer looking beyond the surrounding textures and patterns.

Taylor Wessing Photographic Commission £8,000: Jesse Navarre Vos

Mom, I’ll follow you still by Jesse Navarre Vos, from the series I’ll Come Following You, 2023. © Jesse Navarre Vos.

Jesse Navarre Vos is a photographer from Cape Town, South Africa. Vos sees portrait photography as a way of connecting with people, whether that be through his fashion and editorial work, or the ongoing personal collaboration with his mother, of which this shortlisted work is part.

Vos’ series I’ll Come Following You follows his mother, Edith Mavis Velk, who is in fact his biological paternal grandmother – his legal guardian since his birth and mother by adoption since Vos’ teens. Following a burglary at the family’s home in 2018, the previously self-reliant Edith was unable to look after herself. Vos’ shortlisted photograph depicts Edith pausing in a lift in the care facility she eventually entered. He describes that when photographing his mother in the lift, he felt she was “distant, going somewhere that I couldn't follow.” In pausing to make the image, propping the door open with a cushion, he sustained their connection. This project is a collaboration; the photographer’s mother an equal contributor.

The judges thought the vulnerability of the sitter was perfectly communicated through the contrast between the artist’s mother and her surroundings. Details, such as the cushion holding the lift door, give this sensitive and quiet portrait an unexpected edge.

The Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2024 exhibition will also host this year’s In Focus Photographer, Diana Markosian. Since 2015, the In Focus display has showcased new work by acclaimed photographers from around the world, including Hassan Hajjaj, Rinko Kawauchi and Pieter Hugo. This year, photographs by Diana Markosian from her series and new publication Father (Aperture, 2024) have been selected to be shown alongside works in the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize.

Father presents the artist's journey to another place and another time, where she makes an attempt to piece together an image of a familiar stranger—her long-lost father. The images, made over the course of a decade, are accompanied by prose which further articulates the photographer’s deeply personal story. Markosian will also be joining an in-conversation event taking place in the Gallery on Friday 15 November, where she will discuss her approach to this body of work.

L-R: My Father’s Reflection, 2015. From the series Father by Diana Markosian © Diana Markosian; Friday, 2018. From the series Father by Diana Markosian. © Diana Markosian.

Visitors to the exhibition can also expect to see a newly unveiled portrait of clean air advocate, WHO Breathe Life Ambassador and founder of the Ella Roberta Foundation, Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah CBE, taken by the 2023 winner of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Commission, Serena Brown. After winning the inaugural commission prize for her portrait me nana fie, Brown chose to approach Adoo- Kissi-Debrah as her sitter, acknowledging the campaigner for her work to raise awareness of health problems caused by air pollution. The final photograph selected for the National Portrait Gallery’s collection, was taken in the sitter’s beautiful garden in June 2024, exemplifying Brown’s intimate and natural style.

NPG x203055 Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah by Serena Brown, Chromogenic print, 14 June 2024 Taylor Wessing Photographic Commission 2023.

“I’d like to congratulate all 55 talented photographers who were chosen to exhibit this year, and most notably our four winners. The competition embodies the Gallery’s ongoing mission to foreground contemporary photographic portraiture and we’re honored to continue to showcase the work of these imaginative and industrious photographers with the support of Taylor Wessing.” Clare Freestone, Curator, Photographs, National Portrait Gallery.

"We are proud that Taylor Wessing and the Gallery have worked in a partnership for 17 years to create the pre-eminent Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize. This year the amazing breadth of technical skill and innovative composition makes for a fantastic exhibition that is filled with striking photographs that showcase an incredible array of talent. We are also excited to see the winner of the first Taylor Wessing Photographic Commission, Serena Brown's portrait of Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah to be unveiled and we look forward to seeing what work this year's Commission winner, Jesse Navarre Vos will bring us in 2025's exhibition. Congratulations once again to all of the winners and shortlisted artists." Shane Gleghorn, Managing Partner, Taylor Wessing.