Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize 2013: Picture of female jockey Katie Walsh crowned winner
The winning photograph will be displayed at the National Portrait Gallery
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Your support makes all the difference.Spencer Murphy has won the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize for a picture of jockey Katie Walsh taken at Kempton Park Racecourse.
The 31-year-old Kent-born photographer was awarded £12,000 in prize money last night at the National Portrait Gallery, where his artwork will be displayed until February next year.
Murphy’s winning shot was created while shooting a collection of jump riders’ portraits for Channel 4’s The Original Extreme Sport campaign.
The photographer said he was keen to include Walsh for her “femininity” and “toughness of spirit”.
He said: “I chose to shoot the series on large format film, to give the images a depth and timelessness that I think I would have been hard to achieve on a digital camera.”
Other photographic portraits commended by the award included a photograph of an Indian woman with a child at the Kumbh Mela pilgrimage, a portrait of Kofi Annan looking down, and two elderly twins in bed together.
Hana Knizova, 29, was named winner of the John Kobal New Work Award for her portrait of identical twins Elza and Nellie.
Knizova won £4,000 and will undertake a commission to photograph a sitter connected with the UK film industry from the National Portrait Gallery Collection.
Judges have selected 60 portraits to go on show in connection with the prize, after nearly 2,500 photographers sent in almost 5,500 submissions.
Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, said: "The 2013 Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize exemplifies photographic portraiture at its most perceptive. These are sharp, engaging portraits. My congratulations to all the prizewinners.”
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