The National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects. The winner for 2014 is
Matthew Martin by Andrew Cowen
Untitled by David Apostol was highly commended.
This year's Prize was diverse as usual. Throughout the selection process, the photographic portraits that continued to rise to the top told us something deep about the sitter. We were looking for portraits that gave a strong sense of the person depicted. When it came down to the final judging, our top ten, then three, then two, showed us an increasingly subtle and real sense of the person in the portrait. The winning portrait is striking in its minimalism and it shows a cloudy complexity of thinking - the person in the portrait is looking outwards and inwards. The guest judge, photographer Greg Weight, says the winning portrait 'achieves maximum visual impact through the use of minimal, elegant composition - and then it begins to work psychologically. There is no doubt in this portrait Mathew Martin appears to be deep in thought. It's like a frozen Bill Viola moment; the more I look at it the more I'm intrigued. It's a perfect use of restraint by the photographer Andrew Cowen.'
