The Eyes Have It

This year’s Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize raises many questions about the role of portraiture and photography.

- Gemma Padley

In this age of smartphones, where selfies reign supreme, we have become so used to casually taking photographs of ourselves and others that we barely give our actions a second thought. What is the point of considered, photographic portraiture in such a disposable, image-sharing culture?

One look at the selection of portraits at the annual Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition should persuade you of the value of skillfully produced portraits. Not only that but their quality should help ensure the craft of photographic portraiture lives on, and that it goes from strength to strength.

The competition, sponsored for the ninth year running by international law firm Taylor Wessing, is open to everyone over the age of 18. It awards four photographers cash prizes ranging from £2,000 to £15,000 for portraits taken on commission or as part of a personal project.

Although not without its critics, who bemoan the competition’s perceived tendency to ‘play it safe’, the Prize seems as popular as ever. The panel of industry professionals who judged the competition ‘blind’ from original prints, sifted through more than 4,000 submissions entered by almost 2,000 photographers from 61 countries.

Variety of processes 

This year the organisers, undoubtedly keen to keep the competition relevant and fresh, allowed photographers to submit prints created using a variety of photographic processes and techniques [see opposite]. The competition saw a range of entries, from colour coupler prints (full color prints printed from colour negatives or transparencies) to digital silver gelatin prints and tintypes. In fact, the second prize went to a large-format tintype portrait by Joni Sternbach.