Three international photographers have been shortlisted for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2022, the prestigious photography award organised by the National Portrait Gallery, London.
The shortlisted works will be displayed in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2022 exhibition at Cromwell Place, a new arts hub in South Kensington, London from the 27 October until 18 December 2022, while the Gallery’s building in St Martin’s Place is closed for major redevelopment works.
Selected by a panel of judges from 4,462 entries from 1,697 photographers, the three shortlisted photographers are:
- Haneem Christian for Mother and Daughter and Rooted, which explore queerness, transness and the importance of chosen family.
- Clémentine Schneidermann for portraits from the series Laundry Day, which document the daily chores of her neighbour in South Wales, navigating life in lockdown.
- Alexander Komenda for Zahid’s Son, a portrait that examines themes of identity and the post-Soviet landscape in Kyrgyzstan.
The annual Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, now celebrating fifteen years under Taylor Wessing‘s sponsorship, is one of the most prestigious photography awards in the world and showcases new work submitted by some of the most exciting contemporary photographers. The winner of the first prize will receive £15,000. The second prize-winner receives £3,000 and the third prize £2,000.
Following an anonymous judging process, the winner will be announced on Tuesday 25 October 2022. This year’s judging panel was chaired by National Portrait Gallery Director, Dr Nicholas Cullinan, who was joined by Chief Foreign Correspondent at The Sunday Times, Christina Lamb; award-winning photographer, Siân Davey; the Director of Photoworks, Shoair Mavlian; and the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2022 curator, Eva Eicker. The following photographs have been shortlisted for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2022.
Haneem Christian for Mother and Daughter and Rooted
Haneem Christian is a visual poet and activist, who was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa. They studied Gender Studies and Environmental and Geographical Sciences at the University of Cape Town, which has since informed their body of work. Their photography focuses on representation within the Black and Brown LGBTQIA+ community.
Christian’s entries, entitled Mother and Daughter and Rooted, are photographic works from two separate series that explore queerness and transness in relation to family, race and identity. The works were particularly praised for giving voices to communities in various cultural contexts, and for the visible trust conveyed between sitters and photographer.
Mother and Daughter depicts Cheshire V and Autumn May, who are both trans feminine artists from Cape Town, South Africa. Christian’s photograph explores the relationship between the two, and questions “what it means to be a mother to a child who you have chosen and has chosen you”. Christian commented that this image “is a celebration of the family we choose,” while Rooted “honours the journey of returning to the Self by seeing yourself through the eyes of a loved one”. The tender and poetic representation, which depicts a figure laying back and gazing straight to camera within a woodland setting “acknowledges and celebrates the multidimensionality and sacred nature of queerness and transness rooted in precolonial knowledge of self”.
Clémentine Schneidermann for Laundry Day #2 and Laundry Day #3
