The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2024 celebrates established and emerging artistic talent from across the country. The works by the 34 selected finalists provide a powerful visual record of the year, reflecting a particular time in Australian culture, both socially and artistically. The winner for 2024 is
Alexis with moon, 2024 by Amos Gebhardt
This year’s judges – Isobel Parker Philip (Portrait Gallery Director, Curatorial and Collection), José da Silva (Director of Sydney’s UNSW Galleries, and curator of the 18th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art) and Pippa Milne (Curator PHOTO Australia) – said that this year’s field was exceptionally strong. Of the winning work, the judges were taken by the sparse, yet powerful, diptych created through a tight interplay between the moon, the subject and the camera.
“Alexis Wright is a noted First Nations storyteller whose work collapses linear time and connects to ideas of the cosmos, and Gebhardt’s portrait, lit only by the moon, speaks directly to the sitter’s work. Created through a long exposure, the pair of photographs turn Wright and the moon into echoed forms. Instead of a singular snapshot in time, what is represented is an extended moment; the moon traces its passage in the sky and Wright’s eyes flicker, reflecting light back to us. The intentionality of the work’s presentation, opening like the pages of a book, can only truly be appreciated in-situ.”
In 2024, the winner receives a cash prize of $30,000 and Canon equipment valued at $20,000 courtesy of the Gallery’s Imaging Partner, Canon Australia. The artist who receives the most votes in the People’s Choice Award will be awarded $10,000 cash courtesy of the Calvert-Jones Foundation as well as a prize pack from EIZO. This year, Shelley Xue's 阿谊 (ah Yi) 2024 has been selected the winner for the Art Handlers’ award, receiving $2,000 cash from exhibition partner IAS Fine Art Logistics.
