See This Year's Best Portrait Photographs

2 minute read

Each year, the National Portrait Gallery in London presents its selection of what it considers to be the best achievements in portraiture. And each year, not everyone agrees with the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize’s final selection, which features 50 portrait images, as well as four shortlisted photographs that compete for a $20,000 cash prize.

In past years, groups of photographers have joined forces to denounce the National Portrait Gallery’s process and perceived bias, which is alleged to favor a certain type of conservative imagery. Since 2011, for example, the Portrait Salon photography prize has been selecting its own winners from the pool of rejected Taylor Wessing entrants.

Yet, the National Portrait Gallery’s contest continues to play an important role in portrait photography – often confirming its own conformist tendencies, while, at times, surprising by its unconventional choices. This year, the jury seems to have decided to do both.

While Birgit Püve’s portrait of identical twin boys kneeling next to their great grandmother’s hen conforms to the prize’s tropes (young subjects embracing an animal, preferably ginger), Blerin Racaj’s shot of a group of young Kosovars and David Titlow’s cinematic portrait of his baby son being introduced to a dog seem out of place when you consider the prize’s past selections. This is a welcome mix, and one that will only confirm the National Portrait Gallery’s standing in defining portraiture, despite the many arguments leveled against the prize.

The winner, chosen from among Püve, Racaj and Titlow, as well as Jessica Fulford-Dobson’s portrait of an Afghan skate girl, will be announced on Nov. 11, 2014.


The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2014 runs from Nov. 13, 2014 to Feb. 22, 2015 at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Olivier Laurent is the editor of TIME LightBox. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @olivierclaurent


Braian and Ryan, shortlisted entryBirgit Puve – National Portrait Gallery, London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Digital Copy
Konrad Lars Hastings Titlow, shortlisted entryDavid Titlow – National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Digital Copy
Indecisive Moment, shortlisted entryBlerim Racaj – National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Digital Copy
Skate Girl, shortlisted entryJessica Fulford-Dobson – National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Born Digital
Marcus Henry, meteorological station, St Helena Island, 2013. Jon Tonks—National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Born Digital
Together We Stand, 2014. Sara Al Obaidly—National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Digital Copy
Dog and boy, 2013. Laurence Cartwright—National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Digital Copy
Free Syrian Army rebel, 2013.Tobias Hutzler—National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Born Digital
Companions, 2014. Joseph Smith—National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Born Digital
Maria, 2014. Bert Verwelius—National Portrait Gallery London
IN/VISIBLE - CHRISTINE AND MOSES
Christine and Moses, 2014. Ann-Christine Woehrl—National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Born Digital
Jacek Z, 2013. Sebastian Holzknecht—National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Digital Copy
Truth, Faith & Kitty, 2014. David Harriman—National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Born Digital
Blind boy in village hut, 2014. Graeme Robertson—National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Digital Copy
Euromaidan protestors in Kyiv, Ukraine, 2014. Tom Jamieson—National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Born Digital
Jeniffer, 2013. Shelley Calton—National Portrait Gallery London
From the series: "Hackney - A Tale of Two Cities"
'M', 'P' & 'JJ', 2013. Zed Nelson—National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Born Digital
Freyja Haraldsdóttir, MP and disabled rights activist, outside parliament in Reykjavik, Iceland, 2013. Gabrielle Motola—National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Born Digital
Chris and Amaira, Chicago, 2013. Richard Renaldi—National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Digital Copy
Myrtle Mcknight, My Mother, 2014. Marcia Michael—National Portrait Gallery London
Jamila as her mother Olivia, 2013. Hayley Benoit—National Portrait Gallery London
NPG Gallery Record - Exhibition Image – Digital Copy
Nepheli, 2014. Konstantinos Kartelias—National Portrait Gallery London

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