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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

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We Were Just Little Boys, 2023

Tace Stevens

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2024 Finalist

pigment photographic print on paper (frame: 73.0cm x 49.5cm depth 4.0cm)
We Were Just Little Boys, 2023

Tace Stevens
Noongar/Spinifex
born Australia 1992

We Were Just Little Boys 2023
pigment photographic print on paper

‘In 2023, I received a grant from the Magnum Foundation and the World Monuments Fund to work with the Survivors of the Kinchela Boys Home, a state-run institution that kidnapped hundreds of First Nations boys between 1924 and 1970. Dhungutti man Uncle Harry Ritchie (#56) shares his story: “I didn’t learn anything about Aboriginality. We were taught to be white in there, you know what I mean? Taught to be white, and don’t mix with blackfullas in school. I lost my culture ... more or less, my identity ... I knew nothing when I got out of Kinchela. When I went to Mum’s in Armidale, I cried to go back to Kinchela, because that’s all I knew. That was my home, you know?”’

Tace Stevens is a Noongar and Spinifex visual storyteller based in Boorloo/Perth. She uses photography and film to explore this world, and to better understand who she is as a First Nations woman.

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National Photographic Portrait Prize 2024

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National Photographic Portrait Prize 2024
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National Photographic Portrait Prize 2024

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from Saturday 22 June

The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2024 celebrates established and emerging artistic talent from across the country.
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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

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