© National Portrait Gallery 2025
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Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2011 Finalist
This photo of Cailynn Van der Merwe is part of an ongoing series on kids that documents the same children each year. A large format 4 x 5 camera was used, which required the sitter to remain very still, like the way portraits were taken in the beginning of portraiture. This is a character study to try and see what kind of person we will become while we are still kids, simply by observing basic facial features. I did not want to evoke any childlike emotions, as I wanted to see the small facial features that make us unique, or similar to our parents.
The NPPP exhibition is selected from a national field of entries. The annual exhibition, now in its fourth year, reflects the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.
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