“Ruby” wins judge’s approval in the National Photographic Portrait Prize

Posted on 17 June, 2023

Over the past six years, photographer Shea Kirk has been inviting people into his studio to sit for portraits against very simple backdrops.

But the photo of his friend and fellow-artist Emma Armstrong-Porter is, as it turns out, anything but simple—winning the 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize from a pool of nearly 2400 entrants and 47 finalists.

Announced last night by the National Portrait Gallery, the portrait, is titled “Ruby” and is half of a stereoscopic pair from Kirk’s ongoing series Vantages.

“This portrait is of my now good friend Emma, which we made together during our first meeting. I wanted to create the idea of the body as a record. We are our faces as much as we are our limbs, extremities, our nooks and crannies. The self and sense of a person in a portrait for me is often thought of more than just a face and hands, it’s an essence of the whole,” Shea said.

Shea has taken home $30,000 cash from the National Portrait Gallery and $20,000 worth of Canon equipment thanks to Imaging Partner Canon Australia.

Emma Armstrong-Porter, who is also a finalist in the prestigious award, said Shea’s portrait reflects their changing attitude to their body and how it fits within society.  “I’ve always struggled with the size of my body, from being extremely underweight to now being overweight. Over the past few years working with other photographers, making portraits, I’ve been processing my feelings about the transformation. I’m starting to feel more at home in my big queer body,” they said.

Judges, including National Portrait Gallery Senior Curator Joanna Gilmour, Daniel Boetker-Smith, Director of the Centre for Contemporary Photography, and critically acclaimed photo media artist Tamara Dean, said the work was a “celebration of photography.”

“While Shea makes the portrait look effortless, this is a masterful and technically complex work where the sitter has no self-consciousness.  It is as if the artist and sitter are participating equally in the transaction,” judges said.

Renae Saxby was awarded the Highly Commended prize, for her work Bangardidjan 2022, a photo of proud Kine, Rembarrnga and Dalabon women Cindy Rostron on the road in remote Central Arnhem Land.  Rostron is photographed in the family car with a buffalo skull painted by her father Victor Rostron strapped to the roof.  Judges said the work had “exceptional cinematic quality, encapsulating an entire story, and while there is so much to see from a narrative point of view, it is the sitters gaze which draws you in”.

Meanwhile the previously announced Art Handlers winner is David Cossini’s portrait of Ugandan man Godfrey Baguma, titled Ugandan Ssebab.

Established by the National Portrait Gallery to support and celebrate photographic portraiture in Australia, the National Photographic Portrait Prize was first awarded in 2007 and has since become a highlight of the National Portrait Gallery’s annual calendar, attracting thousands of entries each year from amateur and professional photographers around the country—and attracting strong attendance from people fascinated by the art, stories, techniques and faces.

Newly appointed director of the gallery Bree Pickering said the exhibition reflects the distinctive vision of Australia’s aspiring and professional photographers.  “The NPPP is a beloved and important national prize that supports the Australian photographic community and enlarges our collective experience of the Australian people, from the well-known and celebrated, to local heroes and identities. We look forward to welcoming visitors to this popular annual event, which reveals many rich examples of photographic portraiture.”

She noted this was Shea’s fourth time as a finalist in the Prize. In 2020, he received the Art Handlers’ Award for his work.

“All four of Shea’s works across the four years, are from a portrait series called Vantages. Shea uses a dual large format camera to simultaneously record two views of his subjects from different perspectives. The process is slow, methodical and highly considered, allowing for an intimate exchange between artist and subject.”

The finalists for NPPP 2023 are: Adam Ferguson, Anne Moffat, Bahram Mia, Ben McNamara, Brenda L. Croft, Bruce Agnew, Cassandra Scott-Finn, Charlie Bliss, Charlie Ford, Cindy Kavanagh, David Cossini, David Darcy, Dylan Le’Mon, Elliot Brown, Emma Armstrong-Porter, Forough Yavari, Franca Turrin, Francis Cloake, The Huxleys, Gerwyn Davies, Grace Costa, Isabella Melody Moore, Jacob Nash, Heidi Margocsy, Jacqueline Mitelman, James Bugg, Jay Hynes, Jimmy Widders Hunt, Jo Duck, Julian Kingma, Lily Hatten, Martine Perret, Meng-Yu Yan, Nathan Dyer, Renae Saxby, Renato Colangelo, Rohan Thomson, Sammaneh Pourshafighi, Sarah Depta, Sarah Enticknap, Sean Slattery, Shannon May Powell, Shea Kirk, Stuart Miller, Tajette O’Halloran and Teva Cosic.

The National Photographic Portrait Prize opens today and events to mark the opening include:

• 2023 NPPP Judges will discuss the artworks and themes in this year’s Prize in a panel discussion from 10.30-11.30am (FREE).
• Leading Brisbane based performance photographer Kris Anderson will deliver a lecture and workshop: Concept, Capture, Craft – The Art of Idea Visualisation.  2:30 – 4:30pm, $50 / $45 Circle of Friends / $35 full time student.
• Highlight Tours of the NPPP will run daily from Monday 19 June until Monday 2 October, 11:15 – 11:45am, free with exhibition ticket.

Main Image: Gallery director Bree Pickering with Shea Kirk and his winning portrait Ruby (left view), 2022 Shea Kirk