The National Portrait Gallery’s annual competition uplifts new and established perspectives in the world of contemporary photography.
The National Portrait Gallery in London announces the shortlist of four photographers for the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2025. Selected from 5,910 submissions from 2,054 photographers, the shortlisted entries exemplify the imagination and brilliance of contemporary photography across the world.
This year’s judges panel includes photographer, activist and educator Sunil Gupta, art historian and curator Katy Hessel, renowned fashion photographer Tim Walker, as well as the National Portrait Gallery’s Senior Curator of Photography, Sabina Jaskot-Gill.
The overall winner will receive £15,000, while second place will be awarded £3,000, with £2,000 for third place. One of the photographers will also be commissioned to create a piece of artwork for the National Portrait Gallery’s collection.
Open to entrants aged 18 and over, the competition encourages photographers to use portraiture as a vehicle to contemplate identity. Past winners have been known to grapple with complex social topics, such as 2024 first-place winner Steph Wilson. Her portrait Sonam, from the 2023 series Ideal Mother challenges the assumed appearance of motherhood. The sitter’s false moustache and short-cut hair create an unexpectedly masculine image, provoking a revised reading that goes beyond the exterior: the mother, and unveils the layers within: the person.
“Each year, the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize offers a unique opportunity to reflect on our world today, from intimate glimpses into individual lives, to images casting light on global issues,” says Victoria Siddall, Director of The National Portrait Gallery. “The portraits submitted tell incredible stories of people around the world today.”
Among this year’s shortlist is photographer and director Hollie Fernando, who entwines the modern with the pastoral in Boss Morris, from the series Hoydendish. The portrait depicts the young women of the Boss Morris dancing ring, an all-female dance group based in Stroud.
Inspired by the natural world and the dramatic softness of pre-Raphaelite portraiture, Fernando has worked with clients such as Adidas and Gucci and has photographed the likes of Rami Malek and Ambika Mod. For her Hoydendish series, she highlights a shift in gender equality in Morris dancing culture, a world which was historically dominated by men in the early 1900s, but is witnessing a reclamation.
Fernando captures the whimsical joy of the Boss Morris women, adorned in folkloric dress, white cotton and lace. Moss, petals and other flora line their faces, blurring the distinction between the human and the earth, while a goat’s head costume piece presides over the scene. The image captures the women’s progressive approach to traditional dance, reviving history for a more inclusive future.
Jaidi Playing by doctor and photographer Byron Mohammad Hamzah documents the innocence and hope of Bajau Laut’s youth, a stateless group residing in East Malaysia. Hamzah has spent the past two years working as a volunteer teacher at an NGO in Sabah, providing free schooling to marginalised youth.
In witnessing the powerful relationships the children formed in the face of uncertainty, Hamzah set out to capture their lives through close collaboration. Jaidi Playing, from the series Bunga dan Tembok (The Flower and The Wall: The Stateless Youths of Semporna), depicts Jaidi, one of Hamzah’s young students. His eyes are closed, his head held gently in the hands of another child. It is a peaceful snapshot within a volatile reality, a beacon of warmth in their resilience.
Luan Davide Gray’s black and white portrait We Dare to Hug, from the series Call Me By Your Name, is a tender celebration of queer love. Two men in their 60s connect in a loving embrace, the interconnection of their bare skin makes it hard to discern where one man begins and the other ends.
Gray offers an alternative vision of masculinity, one that is vulnerable and gentle. An enduring love story told in an easy gesture. The piece calls to Gray’s larger body of work, capturing moments of hidden beauty on the margins of social expectation.
Stockholm-based photographer Martina Holmberg’s Mel pictures the eponymous sitter gazing wistfully out of the window. Her hair falls over her shoulder as the natural light illuminates her skin. There is an enigmatic quality to the subject; while her physical body is present, we feel a sense that her mind is elsewhere.
When Mel was a child, she was involved in a car fire, which killed her sister, while Mel survived with severe burns. The piece is from Holmberg’s collection The Outside of the Inside, which documents people with facial and physical differences. The photographer’s approach is intimate, highlighting the diversity of human appearance and drawing attention to the stories within.
The chosen portraits will be showcased amongst 54 works by 51 photographers at the National Portrait Gallery, where the winner will be announced on 11 November 2025. Celebrating the best of visual storytelling, The Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2025 exhibition opens from 13 November 2025 and runs until 8 February 2026.
Homepage banner image: Boss Morris from the series Hoydensih, April 2024 c Hollie Fernando. Homepage: Mel from the series The Outside of the Inside, October 2024 c Martina Holmberg. Inside image; left Jaidi Playing from the series Bunga Dan Tembok (The Flower and The Wall: The Stateless Youths of Semporna) April 2025 c Byron Mohammed Hamzah. Inside image right: We Dare to Hug from the series Call Me By Your Name, March 2025 c Luan Davide Gray. All images courtesy of National Portrait Gallery.
