The winner of this prize couldn't hold back her tears

The Advertiser

21 hours ago

Hoda Afshar hadn't planned on entering her work into Australia's largest photographic portrait prize this year - especially as she'd already won once.
But enter she did, hoping only that her work be selected as a finalist - knowing she would be among thousands of similar hopefuls.
On hearing her work had won the National Photographic Portrait Prize for a second time, she couldn't hold back her tears.
"I submitted this work, hoping it might be selected as one of the finalists, in order to draw public attention to the ongoing crisis facing Indigenous children in youth detention across Australia," she said.
Untitled #01 (from the series Code Black/Riot) 2024, is part of a collaboration with a group of First Nations young people in Far North Queensland that questions a system that targets and imprisons them from the age of 10.
The project, facilitated by the Cairns-based Youth Empowered Towards Independence and Change the Record in Sydney, invited participants to have their portraits taken, using a means of their own choosing to conceal their identities while making a personal statement.
"Some of them chose flowers or bubbles. Others a flag, mask or face paint. The three girls here chose this gesture," Afshar said.
"As a photographer, I am always seeking to disrupt such ways of seeing, and this is why I chose to submit this portrait. For me, these girls' gestures symbolise an act of resistance both against authority and towards the camera - a refusal to be, or to be seen, as passive."
For 18 years, the National Photographic Portrait Prize has celebrated photographic portraiture in Australia.
Open to established and emerging artists, the prize is an opportunity for artists to have their work shown in a national gallery, where it will be seen by thousands of people.
The judges this year, Benjamin Law, National Portrait Gallery senior curator Serena Bentley, and Art Gallery of South Australia curator of contemporary art Leigh Robb, described it as a portrait of "immense power, which creates an urgent conversation between the viewer and subjects".
"By handing agency over to her subjects, Hoda Afshar has given these First Nations young people the rare opportunity to frame themselves on their own terms," they said.
"As part of a group that are often discussed and depicted but rarely given a voice, these figures observe us in turn, giving an assessment of the nation right now. While seemingly incidental, the relationship between the haphazard staging, blurred background and focus points in the foreground make for a bracing, brilliant photograph taken by an artist who truly knows her craft."
Hoda Afshar is a Melbourne-based visual artist and documentary maker, currently working in Berlin. This is the second time she has won the National Photographic Portrait Prize, the first in 2015 with the work Portrait of Ali, 2014. She wins $30,000 cash courtesy of the gallery and $20,000 worth of equipment courtesy of Canon Australia.
Sherry Quiambao is the inaugural winner of the First Time Finalist Award, with Mother dreams on a stone, 2024.
Quiambao is an Australian-Filipino multidisciplinary artist based in Perth. Mother dreams on a stone is a glittering portrait of her mother that explores themes of renewal, identity and belonging.
"Wrapped in a golden emergency blanket and resting on a tumbled stone, my mother represents strength and adaptability, finding hope through her migration story," the artist writes.
"The golden blanket, a symbol of safety and care, contrasts with the grounding presence of the stone. Together, they reflect the tension between aspiration, humility, fragility and resilience."
National Portrait Gallery director Bree Pickering said the 2025 finalist portraits, 48 in all, represented artists and sitters from all states and territories.
"The exhibition foregrounds the artist's voice," she says.
"In each of the finalist works, subjects are revealed from the artist's point of view. The works are an invitation into the intimate world of a subject/artist relationship and a reflection of the people who make up the communities in which we all live."
Sydney-based artist George Fetting received the 2025 Art Handlers' Award for his portrait Antonio Intili - Sartoria (Tailor Shop) #1, 2024. This intimate portrait of Antonio Intili in his tailor shop captures him in a moment of reflection. Fetting is a four-time National Photographic Portrait Prize finalist, and receives a $3000 cash prize.
The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025 will be on show from August 16 to October 12. All finalist works can be viewed, with tickets to the exhibition available on the gallery's website at portrait.gov.au.
The final prize, the People's Choice Award, decided by members of the public, will be announced in October, with the winner receiving $10,000 cash. All finalists receive artist, copyright and licencing fees as well as freight costs and travel allowances.
Hoda Afshar hadn't planned on entering her work into Australia's largest photographic portrait prize this year - especially as she'd already won once.
But enter she did, hoping only that her work be selected as a finalist - knowing she would be among thousands of similar hopefuls.
On hearing her work had won the National Photographic Portrait Prize for a second time, she couldn't hold back her tears.
"I submitted this work, hoping it might be selected as one of the finalists, in order to draw public attention to the ongoing crisis facing Indigenous children in youth detention across Australia," she said.
Untitled #01 (from the series Code Black/Riot) 2024, is part of a collaboration with a group of First Nations young people in Far North Queensland that questions a system that targets and imprisons them from the age of 10.
The project, facilitated by the Cairns-based Youth Empowered Towards Independence and Change the Record in Sydney, invited participants to have their portraits taken, using a means of their own choosing to conceal their identities while making a personal statement.
"Some of them chose flowers or bubbles. Others a flag, mask or face paint. The three girls here chose this gesture," Afshar said.
"As a photographer, I am always seeking to disrupt such ways of seeing, and this is why I chose to submit this portrait. For me, these girls' gestures symbolise an act of resistance both against authority and towards the camera - a refusal to be, or to be seen, as passive."
For 18 years, the National Photographic Portrait Prize has celebrated photographic portraiture in Australia.
Open to established and emerging artists, the prize is an opportunity for artists to have their work shown in a national gallery, where it will be seen by thousands of people.
The judges this year, Benjamin Law, National Portrait Gallery senior curator Serena Bentley, and Art Gallery of South Australia curator of contemporary art Leigh Robb, described it as a portrait of "immense power, which creates an urgent conversation between the viewer and subjects".
"By handing agency over to her subjects, Hoda Afshar has given these First Nations young people the rare opportunity to frame themselves on their own terms," they said.
"As part of a group that are often discussed and depicted but rarely given a voice, these figures observe us in turn, giving an assessment of the nation right now. While seemingly incidental, the relationship between the haphazard staging, blurred background and focus points in the foreground make for a bracing, brilliant photograph taken by an artist who truly knows her craft."
Hoda Afshar is a Melbourne-based visual artist and documentary maker, currently working in Berlin. This is the second time she has won the National Photographic Portrait Prize, the first in 2015 with the work Portrait of Ali, 2014. She wins $30,000 cash courtesy of the gallery and $20,000 worth of equipment courtesy of Canon Australia.
Sherry Quiambao is the inaugural winner of the First Time Finalist Award, with Mother dreams on a stone, 2024.
Quiambao is an Australian-Filipino multidisciplinary artist based in Perth. Mother dreams on a stone is a glittering portrait of her mother that explores themes of renewal, identity and belonging.
"Wrapped in a golden emergency blanket and resting on a tumbled stone, my mother represents strength and adaptability, finding hope through her migration story," the artist writes.
"The golden blanket, a symbol of safety and care, contrasts with the grounding presence of the stone. Together, they reflect the tension between aspiration, humility, fragility and resilience."
National Portrait Gallery director Bree Pickering said the 2025 finalist portraits, 48 in all, represented artists and sitters from all states and territories.
"The exhibition foregrounds the artist's voice," she says.
"In each of the finalist works, subjects are revealed from the artist's point of view. The works are an invitation into the intimate world of a subject/artist relationship and a reflection of the people who make up the communities in which we all live."
Sydney-based artist George Fetting received the 2025 Art Handlers' Award for his portrait Antonio Intili - Sartoria (Tailor Shop) #1, 2024. This intimate portrait of Antonio Intili in his tailor shop captures him in a moment of reflection. Fetting is a four-time National Photographic Portrait Prize finalist, and receives a $3000 cash prize.
The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025 will be on show from August 16 to October 12. All finalist works can be viewed, with tickets to the exhibition available on the gallery's website at portrait.gov.au.
The final prize, the People's Choice Award, decided by members of the public, will be announced in October, with the winner receiving $10,000 cash. All finalists receive artist, copyright and licencing fees as well as freight costs and travel allowances.
Hoda Afshar hadn't planned on entering her work into Australia's largest photographic portrait prize this year - especially as she'd already won once.
But enter she did, hoping only that her work be selected as a finalist - knowing she would be among thousands of similar hopefuls.
On hearing her work had won the National Photographic Portrait Prize for a second time, she couldn't hold back her tears.
"I submitted this work, hoping it might be selected as one of the finalists, in order to draw public attention to the ongoing crisis facing Indigenous children in youth detention across Australia," she said.
Untitled #01 (from the series Code Black/Riot) 2024, is part of a collaboration with a group of First Nations young people in Far North Queensland that questions a system that targets and imprisons them from the age of 10.
The project, facilitated by the Cairns-based Youth Empowered Towards Independence and Change the Record in Sydney, invited participants to have their portraits taken, using a means of their own choosing to conceal their identities while making a personal statement.
"Some of them chose flowers or bubbles. Others a flag, mask or face paint. The three girls here chose this gesture," Afshar said.
"As a photographer, I am always seeking to disrupt such ways of seeing, and this is why I chose to submit this portrait. For me, these girls' gestures symbolise an act of resistance both against authority and towards the camera - a refusal to be, or to be seen, as passive."
For 18 years, the National Photographic Portrait Prize has celebrated photographic portraiture in Australia.
Open to established and emerging artists, the prize is an opportunity for artists to have their work shown in a national gallery, where it will be seen by thousands of people.
The judges this year, Benjamin Law, National Portrait Gallery senior curator Serena Bentley, and Art Gallery of South Australia curator of contemporary art Leigh Robb, described it as a portrait of "immense power, which creates an urgent conversation between the viewer and subjects".
"By handing agency over to her subjects, Hoda Afshar has given these First Nations young people the rare opportunity to frame themselves on their own terms," they said.
"As part of a group that are often discussed and depicted but rarely given a voice, these figures observe us in turn, giving an assessment of the nation right now. While seemingly incidental, the relationship between the haphazard staging, blurred background and focus points in the foreground make for a bracing, brilliant photograph taken by an artist who truly knows her craft."
Hoda Afshar is a Melbourne-based visual artist and documentary maker, currently working in Berlin. This is the second time she has won the National Photographic Portrait Prize, the first in 2015 with the work Portrait of Ali, 2014. She wins $30,000 cash courtesy of the gallery and $20,000 worth of equipment courtesy of Canon Australia.
Sherry Quiambao is the inaugural winner of the First Time Finalist Award, with Mother dreams on a stone, 2024.
Quiambao is an Australian-Filipino multidisciplinary artist based in Perth. Mother dreams on a stone is a glittering portrait of her mother that explores themes of renewal, identity and belonging.
"Wrapped in a golden emergency blanket and resting on a tumbled stone, my mother represents strength and adaptability, finding hope through her migration story," the artist writes.
"The golden blanket, a symbol of safety and care, contrasts with the grounding presence of the stone. Together, they reflect the tension between aspiration, humility, fragility and resilience."
National Portrait Gallery director Bree Pickering said the 2025 finalist portraits, 48 in all, represented artists and sitters from all states and territories.
"The exhibition foregrounds the artist's voice," she says.
"In each of the finalist works, subjects are revealed from the artist's point of view. The works are an invitation into the intimate world of a subject/artist relationship and a reflection of the people who make up the communities in which we all live."
Sydney-based artist George Fetting received the 2025 Art Handlers' Award for his portrait Antonio Intili - Sartoria (Tailor Shop) #1, 2024. This intimate portrait of Antonio Intili in his tailor shop captures him in a moment of reflection. Fetting is a four-time National Photographic Portrait Prize finalist, and receives a $3000 cash prize.
The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025 will be on show from August 16 to October 12. All finalist works can be viewed, with tickets to the exhibition available on the gallery's website at portrait.gov.au.
The final prize, the People's Choice Award, decided by members of the public, will be announced in October, with the winner receiving $10,000 cash. All finalists receive artist, copyright and licencing fees as well as freight costs and travel allowances.
Hoda Afshar hadn't planned on entering her work into Australia's largest photographic portrait prize this year - especially as she'd already won once.
But enter she did, hoping only that her work be selected as a finalist - knowing she would be among thousands of similar hopefuls.
On hearing her work had won the National Photographic Portrait Prize for a second time, she couldn't hold back her tears.
"I submitted this work, hoping it might be selected as one of the finalists, in order to draw public attention to the ongoing crisis facing Indigenous children in youth detention across Australia," she said.
Untitled #01 (from the series Code Black/Riot) 2024, is part of a collaboration with a group of First Nations young people in Far North Queensland that questions a system that targets and imprisons them from the age of 10.
The project, facilitated by the Cairns-based Youth Empowered Towards Independence and Change the Record in Sydney, invited participants to have their portraits taken, using a means of their own choosing to conceal their identities while making a personal statement.
"Some of them chose flowers or bubbles. Others a flag, mask or face paint. The three girls here chose this gesture," Afshar said.
"As a photographer, I am always seeking to disrupt such ways of seeing, and this is why I chose to submit this portrait. For me, these girls' gestures symbolise an act of resistance both against authority and towards the camera - a refusal to be, or to be seen, as passive."
For 18 years, the National Photographic Portrait Prize has celebrated photographic portraiture in Australia.
Open to established and emerging artists, the prize is an opportunity for artists to have their work shown in a national gallery, where it will be seen by thousands of people.
The judges this year, Benjamin Law, National Portrait Gallery senior curator Serena Bentley, and Art Gallery of South Australia curator of contemporary art Leigh Robb, described it as a portrait of "immense power, which creates an urgent conversation between the viewer and subjects".
"By handing agency over to her subjects, Hoda Afshar has given these First Nations young people the rare opportunity to frame themselves on their own terms," they said.
"As part of a group that are often discussed and depicted but rarely given a voice, these figures observe us in turn, giving an assessment of the nation right now. While seemingly incidental, the relationship between the haphazard staging, blurred background and focus points in the foreground make for a bracing, brilliant photograph taken by an artist who truly knows her craft."
Hoda Afshar is a Melbourne-based visual artist and documentary maker, currently working in Berlin. This is the second time she has won the National Photographic Portrait Prize, the first in 2015 with the work Portrait of Ali, 2014. She wins $30,000 cash courtesy of the gallery and $20,000 worth of equipment courtesy of Canon Australia.
Sherry Quiambao is the inaugural winner of the First Time Finalist Award, with Mother dreams on a stone, 2024.
Quiambao is an Australian-Filipino multidisciplinary artist based in Perth. Mother dreams on a stone is a glittering portrait of her mother that explores themes of renewal, identity and belonging.
"Wrapped in a golden emergency blanket and resting on a tumbled stone, my mother represents strength and adaptability, finding hope through her migration story," the artist writes.
"The golden blanket, a symbol of safety and care, contrasts with the grounding presence of the stone. Together, they reflect the tension between aspiration, humility, fragility and resilience."
National Portrait Gallery director Bree Pickering said the 2025 finalist portraits, 48 in all, represented artists and sitters from all states and territories.
"The exhibition foregrounds the artist's voice," she says.
"In each of the finalist works, subjects are revealed from the artist's point of view. The works are an invitation into the intimate world of a subject/artist relationship and a reflection of the people who make up the communities in which we all live."
Sydney-based artist George Fetting received the 2025 Art Handlers' Award for his portrait Antonio Intili - Sartoria (Tailor Shop) #1, 2024. This intimate portrait of Antonio Intili in his tailor shop captures him in a moment of reflection. Fetting is a four-time National Photographic Portrait Prize finalist, and receives a $3000 cash prize.
The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025 will be on show from August 16 to October 12. All finalist works can be viewed, with tickets to the exhibition available on the gallery's website at portrait.gov.au.
The final prize, the People's Choice Award, decided by members of the public, will be announced in October, with the winner receiving $10,000 cash. All finalists receive artist, copyright and licencing fees as well as freight costs and travel allowances.