Living Memory National Photographic Portrait Prize

Good morning and welcome to the National Portrait Gallery and our launch of Living Memory, the National Photographic Portrait Prize for 2021.

Thanks for joining us my name is Tara I work here at the Portrait Gallery and I'll be your somewhat nervous host for this very special event today, please be kind. I'd like to extend a really warm welcome from a super cold Canberra morning. It was minus four here this morning when I was scraping the ice off my car to come to work. So we'd like to extend a warm welcome to everyone joining us from all around Australia. We particularly like to welcome those of you who are joining us currently in lockdown you're in our thoughts and we really can't wait when it's safe to welcome your smiling faces back to the Gallery again soon. Also a really extra special welcome to all of the amazing finalists for the National Photographic Portrait Prize.

I know you're all nervously awaiting this announcement. I've been nervous all week too. I've been living on a steady diet of jelly snakes and coffee, much to the annoyance of my co-workers. It's been a little hypo so you're just in our thoughts and we know you're super nervous and we just can't wait for you all to enjoy the show that we've all put together. The National Portrait Gallery here in Canberra stands on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land, and I'd like to pay my respects to their elders past present and emerging. I'd also like to extend the same respects to the traditional owners from all the lands on which you join us from today.

It is with great sadness that the Portrait Gallery would like to acknowledge the passing of a significant indigenous artist and activist whose stunning portrait by photographer Mihail Tsikas is in the Living Memory exhibition. Out of respect for the family and the community of this artist the subject shall remain unnamed and the portrait will remain covered until such as the time it can be unveiled. We thank you for your understanding.

So the National Photographic Portrait Prize. It can be quite a mouthful so here we call it NPPP because if you say National Photographic Portrait Prize 28 times in a meeting you run out of air really quickly so NPPP to us it's a beloved part of the whole National Portrait Gallery culture. It's now in its 14th year can you believe it and we know it's beloved in the Australian arts community as well. It's always managed to convey a really uniquely Australian experience of the year that was, and a really contemporary view of Australian faces. so the planning for this year's NPPP 2021 took place at a really uncertain time. The Portrait Gallery along with the rest of Australia was in lockdown and we were working remotely but we really felt more than ever we had to deliver this prize as a way of everyone to express through their arts what we'd all been collectively going through. At such a time of uncertainty and for us witnessing our communities and particularly our photographic and artist communities loss of connection and their very livelihoods we knew we had to do something really special to give back, and so the concept of this year's exhibition Living Memory was born. We aim to make it bigger than ever before we wanted to support more artists than any previous exhibition, and we wanted to give back to the creative community.

And we've been able to do so thanks to the generous support of our amazing sponsors, and also a new series of mentorships and more awards than ever. So for us it was a really big ask and we took the bull by the horns and I really think we've delivered. So this year the prize has double the amount of artworks in it. We've got 79 artworks hanging on our walls. We rolled out an artist support fee for all of the finalists who are going through hardship to enable them to deliver beautiful artworks to the Gallery. We doubled the exhibition space. I can't wait for everyone to see it. It's literally across three full galleries here at the National Portrait Gallery. It's quite a takeover. It's literally taking up half of the Gallery, and it's so important it's it's given the ground it deserves. I really think so. We've also made the exhibition run for longer than ever because we want as many people to be able to visit us, hopefully in person fingers crossed but also to enjoy it online. So we sort of nervously sent out our call for entries we knew we were changing something that was already beloved in the arts community. I was kind of like it's a bit like adding choc chips to a hot cross bun. We were nervous. Should we change it or should we leave it the same?

So our call for entries went out and photographers around Australia answered. Well yeah we just feel so blessed thousands of you submitted incredible portraits, and I just I really want to take a moment to sincerely thank every single entrant that enters our prizes, for entrusting us. We know it's not just entrusting us with your photographs, you're entrusting us with your personal stories, your community's stories your families your family and friends faces, and your lived experience. We know you're basically sharing a window into your worlds, and we see you and we really thank you for that and and entrusting us with that. To me it takes a certain vulnerability to enter a prize, and to have your work be judged. It's hard and I just want all the entrants to know that every single photograph is looked at, every single photograph, thousands of them are looked at by all three of the judges individually and again in person. I think it's just really important for everyone to know that we do look at all of the works and we value everyone being so on board with the prize. So as you can imagine this year the task for our three amazing judges was particularly tough. Our judges as you know were our Director here at NPG Karen Quinlan the Director of the National Gallery of Australia Nick Mitzevich and the amazing photographer Bill Henson and I just wanted to take a little second, because I worked alongside these judges all the way, to thank them because they used so much I just want to thank them for their consideration and their invested care, they really cared of the selection of all the finalists and the winners.

There are so many worthy entrants and we thank you all. And so here we go again. We're on another zoom experience in a gallery, and I know it can never be quite the same. We know it can never be quite the same as visiting an exhibition in the flesh, so our team are working hard on bringing you the exhibition which you'll be able to enjoy online, but for now we're ready to cross live to our Director, the announcement. Good luck everybody, we're thinking of you so we're just going to cruise over here for the announcement.

Good morning and thank you for joining us online and in person for this very special occasion, the announcement of the winner of Living Memory the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2021. My name is Karen Quinlan and I'm the Director of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians on the of the land and throughout australia and recognise the continuing connection to country. I pay my respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to elders past present and emerging as well as being the Director of the National Portrait Gallery I also have the great pleasure of being a judge for this year's Prize. As has been said it's the 14th year of the prize, and for every year the National Photographic Portrait Prize provides a rich tableau of humanity. A reflection of the year that was, after the harrowing bushfires of the summer of 19-20 closely followed by the COVID-19 pandemic, it felt imperative that in 2021 we acknowledge the seismic events of this period. Accordingly we titled this year's Prize Living Memory. A way to look back consider and reflect upon these challenging times. We anticipated that the photographers would respond well to this theme because of their exposure to some of the most extraordinary, extraordinary moments that either they or people they know have experienced.

Today we launched an exhibition of portraiture that captures everything from the catastrophe of drought bushfire to the intimate moments of lockdown. As a result, themes of isolation and solitude permeate the images but the bright celebration of identity, both collective and individual, that resonates throughout every year of the NPPP is highly visible within this unique collection of works. I would like to acknowledge the staff of the NPG, specifically Tara James and the curatorial team for overseeing what I believe is the delivery of an outstanding exhibition and a superb hang, and our small and highly professional production team for enabling you to tune in today. To this announcement, I would like to thank our Gallery partners and supporters, our principal partner EY and our cultural partner Midnight Hotel Autograph Collections. I would like particularly to thank the NPPP exhibition partners who ensure the prize continues to attract except exceptional photographers. This year the photograph judged most outstanding will receive thirty thousand dollars in cash, as well as twenty thousand dollars worth of equipment. This package is supported by Canon, so we're very very grateful. The Highly Commended Award will receive a ColourEdge professional monitor from Eiso valued at four thousand dollars. We thank IAS Fine Art Logistics for their ongoing support of the Art Handlers Award. The winner to be revealed in the coming weeks will receive two thousand dollars. The David Roche Foundation has generously contributed five thousand dollars in cash for the winner of the People's Choice Award which will be announced towards the end of the exhibition, and I encourage you all to visit our website to vote for your favorite work.

I would like to thank my fellow judges Nick Mitzevich, Director of the National Gallery of Australia who is here today and renowned photographer Bill Henson who isn't here, who's hopefully zooming in. The three of us faced a mammoth task sorting through over 3,000 entries, with many robust discussions to arrive at this final short list. Importantly I want to thank all of the entrants to this year's Prize and particularly want to congratulate the 79 finalists. Of course we are truly disappointed that we cannot celebrate with an opening event, however we hope that you will be able to visit us before too long, as the Prize runs through to the 7th of November.

Now to the announcement of our prizes. In acknowledgment of the impact the pandemic has had on the creative community this year we provided each finalist with a supporting payment to help cover the cost of transport and framing. We have also planned for some professional development opportunities for two lucky finalists, including workshops and specifically selected mentoring relationships. It is with this in mind that the judges have selected two of the two artists to be given Distinction Awards. These awards are specifically tailored mentorship prizes designed to continue the Portrait Gallery's commitment to nurturing Australian portrait photography. I am pleased to announce that the Distinction Awards go to RJ Poole for his portrait Great conjunction and Jessica Hromas for her portrait Mark and Saskia cool off. Congratulations to you both.

This year the judges have awarded Highly Commended to Julian Kingma for his portrait Tom at the drain. So congratulations Julian. Julian is a victorian-based photographer who has created a portrait of Tom taking time away from his computer screen during lockdown. In the words of the artist, isolation sent children into a new territory, what to do with themselves, how to negotiate their four walls, sometimes battling anxiety, how to find playfulness and resisting constant screen time. While the world retreated, Tom was reminding me that happiness always exists within the simplest things. This work spoke to the judges in many ways and on many levels. The darkness, the uncertainty, and the anxiety that we may all face at different times but also that sense of hope and the human spirit, the mystery and our questioning is enhanced by the haunting nature of the composition. There is something strange and introspective going on as the child clings to the drainpipe and yet through the darkness and the strange distance with that slightly disturbing placement of the horizon we experience the beauty of this photograph. So well done Julian.

And the winner of Living Memory the National Photographic Portrait Prize for 2021 is New South Wales-based artist Joel Pratley for his striking photograph Drought story, a portrait of David Kalisch, a farmer captured in the midst of an unexpected dust storm on his farm in Forbes, New South Wales. To accompany the work the artist's statement says simply, Sometimes you think why am I here? And Joel is joining us via zoom. Congratulations. Thank you, there you are. Where are you and how do you feel as the winner for this year's NPPP?

I'm streaming from, I just feel really, really overwhelmed. My feet haven't touched the ground. It's just such an amazing competition to be a part of. To actually be a finalist in itself is a huge win so I'm, I'd like to first thank the NPG. What they do for the photographic community and the public. I'd like to thank the judges as well Karen, Nick and Bill. Definitely thank all the entrants and especially the other finalists during this lockdown. I didn't think I would personally win this, however I really do believe in this image and I'm glad that other people do as well. What brought us out to Forbes originally was a job, the goal of which was to show how tough farmers were doing it, and how you could donate to help. I was a very small piece of that puzzle who happened to get this photo. Just the right place and right time. I would like to offer a real special thanks to Campbell Brown who is the Director of Photography on that and also Kira Bartley who was a Director as well, who was involved. I don't think I would have been able to get this photo if we weren't there as a team. I'd also like to thank other members of the team who made this project possible, of course the people from Rural Aid. um Bizous Cellaire and Doug Chandler at BMF, Brit and Sarah at B-Pay and Selena down at Sun Studios who brought this image to life, and did an amazing print job. Of course there's the Kalisch's who I need to thank from the bottom of my heart who gave us their time on their farm during this really tough tough time that they were going through, and also the other farmers that were involved in the project that we visited as well, such as Ronda, Tony and Mark. Again I'd like to just say that I am so grateful and thank you all so much for your time, and thanks to everyone for being a part of this and making it so special for everyone who gets to be involved in the National Portrait Prize.

Fantastic, thank you Joel. Look the judges felt that this work was captivating. You can actually see the horizon run back, the shadows of the clouds and the detritus caused by the storm, and there is this ethereal light coming through that picks up on the smokiness of it all, offering some hope of the clearance. It's an arresting picture, as we see the person completely surrounded and immersed by a power greater than himself. We all concluded that this was an extraordinarily powerful image. So again thank you for zooming in today and thank you so much for your contribution to make this prize so spectacular, and well done, and well done in terms of getting this far in your career, and good luck in terms of the future.