Shea Kirk’s Portrait Of Friend Wins The 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize
Image: Winner of the 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize, Shea Kirk with his portrait of friend and fellow artist, Emma Armstrong-Porter. Image: Mark Mohell/supplied
A portrait of fellow-artist and friend Emma Armstrong-Porter taken by Shea Kirk has won the 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize (NPPP).
Kirk takes home the $30k cash prize from the National Portrait Gallery, along with $20k worth of Canon equipment. The winning portrait is half of a stereoscopic pair from the Vantages series by Kirk.
When speaking about his thoughts behind the portrait, Kirk said that the “self and sense of a person in a portrait for me is often thought of [as] more than just a face and hands, it’s an essence of the whole.”
“Over the past 6 years I have been inviting people over to my home studio to sit in front of simple backdrops and make portraits,” Kirk said.
“This portrait is of my now good friend Emma, which we made together during our first meeting. I wanted to create the idea of the body as a record. We are our faces as much as we are our limbs, extremities, our nooks and crannies.”
Armstrong-Porter is also a NPPP finalist and spoke about Kirk’s portrait of their, saying that it reflects their evolving outlook and attitude towards their body.
“I’ve always struggled with the size of my body, from being extremely underweight to now being overweight,” they said.
“Over the past few years working with other photographers, making portraits, I’ve been processing my feelings about the transformation. I’m starting to feel more at home in my big queer body.”
NPPP Judge’s Comments
The judges’ comments on Kirk’s portrait all praise it as “effortless,” and that the work was a “celebration of photography.”
In this year’s competition, the judges had selected 47 finalists out of close to 2400 entries, with one of the judges and National Portrait Gallery Senior Curator, Joanna Gilmour said that the ongoing theme that emerged from the entries was going beyond or below the surface.
“Each of the works reveal sitters who have presented their quirks or flaws or vulnerabilities, and photographers who have gently yet uncompromisingly allowed their sitters to be themselves,” she said.
