Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2015

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize is the leading competition to celebrate and promote the very best in contemporary portrait photography from around the world.

The selected images, many of which will be on display for the first time, explore both traditional and contemporary approaches to the photographic portrait whilst capturing a range of characters, moods and locations. Alongside informal images of friends and family, this year’s exhibition also features revealing portraits of famous faces, including actor Benedict Cumberbatch and the President of the United States Barack Obama with First Lady Michelle Obama.

David Stewart has won the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2015 for a group portrait of his daughter and her friends. The winning portrait Five Girls 2014 shows the photographer’s daughter with four close friends and mirrors a photograph he took of them seven years ago, which was displayed in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2008. In the original photograph, the friends were about to start their GCSEs and, in the updated version, they have just graduated from university. The prestigious £12,000 award was presented to the London-based photographer at an awards ceremony on 10th November.