Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2020

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2020 is the leading international competition, open to all, which celebrates and promotes the very best in contemporary portrait photography from around the world.

Showcasing talented young photographers, gifted amateurs and established professionals, the competition, showcases a diverse range of images and tells the often fascinating stories behind the creation of the works, from formal commissioned portraits to more spontaneous and intimate moments capturing friends and family.

In 2020, the exhibition was displayed online, in a virtual gallery that replicated the rooms of the National Portrait Gallery. Our online exhibition allowed the Gallery to reach a wide international audience and ensure that the competition was able to continue as planned during the Coronavirus pandemic. Online visitors were able to view the portraits collectively, as well as exploring each individual work in more detail.

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Exhibitors and Prize Winners

Samuel
Jack
Jameela

from the series Lost Summer
by Alys Tomlinson

First Prize

Eden

by Lydia Goldblatt

Second Prize

Enam Ewura Adjoa Asiama

by Yolanda Y. Liou

Third Prize

I Don't Want My Son To Be Afraid of Me, DMZ – Iraqi border

from the series W.A.R. – War Against Reality
by Alfonso De Gregorio

Taliban Prisoner

by Phillip Walter Wellman

Arek

Friday Prayer

by Dirk Rees

Portrait of Rosina

by Tim Pearse

Self-portrait as My Father

from the series Encounter
by Silvia Rosi

Mum (Valerie)

Twin Sisters (Aaliyah and Alisa)

from the series Can You Sit for Me
by Ryan Prince

Kanah Flex

by Mark Chilvers

Bianca bleaching her hair

by Chiara Gambuto

2020

by Kiki Xue

Columbiere Tipungwuti (Jilamara artists)

Raymond Bush (Jilamara artists)

from the series Polaroid Project, 2019
by Tobias Titz

Steve McQueen on the set of Small Axe

by Will Robson-Scott

Indecisive moments: Embrace

Indecisive moments: Choice

from the series Walthamstow Market, COVID-19 Reopening
by Lloyd Ramos

Wild Swimmers

by Nicky Thompson

New Light

by the Revd. Bertie Pearson

Cecilia and Marquita

from the series A Modern Hair Study
by Tara Bogart

Iio Ryoyi, Gardener, Hiroshima, Japan

Makenzie Hazelton, Cancer Survivor, Korrawartha, Australia

Myuki Tomi, Chef, Nozawa, Japan

from the series CITIZEN
by Ingvar Kenne

The Other Brother

from the series The Other Brother
by Oghalé Alex Ogbaudu

Brillen Doppel [Double Glasses]

from the series Champagner im Keller [Champagne in the Cellar]
by Nina Röder

Konya Boys

by Olgaç Bozalp

Tilman Ruff AO: Nobel Peace Laureate

by Nikki Toole

Juliet

from the series It Must be Built From Ashes
by Justin Keene

Olga: Age 74. Working in quarry for 28 years

Olga's Sledge Hammer

from the series HeadStrong: The Women of Rural Uganda: The Quarry Workers
by Dan Nelken

Lee Ga-yeon, North Korean Defector

from the series Unperson – Portraits of North Korean Defectors
by Tim Franco

The pequi tree

by Simone Strijk

Something that was so familiar becomes distant

by Jermaine Francis

Three generations of the Diaz family from Medellin, Colombia

Leonor with bitten into watermelon

from the series River Lea, Hackney
by Sophia Evans

Mother and Child

by Rongguo Gao

Hans
Anders

from the series The Divine
by Erik Norrud

Rebekah the food bank manager

from the series Food Banks
by Charlie Clift

Jaiden

from the series White Hart Lane
by Jack Smethers

Stormzy

by Ana Cuba

Pam Sweeny at her burnt home in Cobargo, New South Wales

Uncle Noel Butler and Trish Butler at their Burnt Home, Nura Gunyu, near Milton, New South Wales

from the series Burning World; Australia
by Gideon Mendel

Jaxxon and his Father, Bruno

from the series Boys Do Cry
by Georgie Wileman

People's Pick

The People’s Pick offers exhibition visitors the opportunity to vote for their favourite portrait in the show. In 2020, 2,601 votes were cast online via the virtual exhibition.

The overall winner was Chiara Gambuto for Bianca bleaching her hair which received 223 votes. In second place, Tim Pearse for Portrait of Rosina with 207 votes, and third went to Will Robson-Scott with Steve McQueen on the set of Small Axe with 184 votes.