Photographic Portrait Prize 2008

Authors

Ben Okri OBE is a poet and novelist, recent titles include In Arcadia (2002) and Starbook (2007).

Richard McClure is a freelance journalist.

Specification

280 x 220mm, 72 pages
65 colour illustrations
ISBN 978 1 85514 396 8
£12.99 (paperback)
Published 6 November 2007


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Out of print

Taylor Wessing
Photographic Portrait Prize 2008
With and essay by Ben Okri
Interviews by Richard McClure

The Photographic Portrait Prize celebrates the vitality and excellence in portrait photography today. This prize is one of the most important platforms for contemporary portrait photographers internationally.

Selected from over 6,900 submissions, this book offers a unique opportunity to see an inspiring range of portraits. The selection of photographs is all about people ­ people who appear intriguing, defiant or relaxed ­ and the outstanding skills of the photographers, whose intelligence and diligence enables them to capture not only a moment
in time, but also convey something of the spirit of those photographed.

Fully illustrated in colour throughout, the book features all the selected entries from this year's competition. There are comments from all the judges about the entries ­ this year's judging panel comprises Sandy Nairne, Director and Terence Pepper, Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, London, plus Julia Fullerton-Batten, photographer, David A. Bailey, curator, photographer, writer and lecturer and Joanna Pitman, photography critic at the Times). This year the book is accompanied by a brief essay by the Booker Prize winning poet and novelist Ben Okri and interviews with the prize winners by Richard McClure give further insight into the photographers behind these outstanding images.

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2008 accompanies an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London from 6 November 2008 to 15 February 2009 and the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle from 4 March to 30 June 2009.