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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

Self-portrait with flowers (presumed native), 2015

by Liam James

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2016 Finalist

Self-portrait with flowers (presumed native), 2015

This portrait is a personal grappling with my family’s mythology, an enquiry into the birth of ancestral stories and a presentation of my own need for identification.  Under the colonial process, history is skewed. Things stated turn out to be fable. Here, in a Tasmanian context, with an erasure so rapid and terrifying, gaps in history and knowledge are typical. I grew up identifying as a fair-skinned Tasmanian Aboriginal, but when I learnt about my heritage the waters muddied and threads of histories started to tangle. So here I stand, hands clutching misconceptions; flowers are my allegory.  

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2016
(More information, View all 49 photos)

Marlon Williams
Boys & their cars
Cliffy
Jordie

Related information

Life Dancers, 2015 by Elizabeth Looker
Life Dancers, 2015 by Elizabeth Looker
Life Dancers, 2015 by Elizabeth Looker
Life Dancers, 2015 by Elizabeth Looker

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2016

Previous exhibition, 2016

The National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.
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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

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