Applications call for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2020. In order to ensure the safety of panel members and Gallery staff the judging of this year’s competition will take place digitally (photographers will not be required to send in their prints for physical judging). Photographers will therefore are required to upload their image(s) via the Gallery’s website at the entry form stage.

Rules

Some rules of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize are as follows

• Photographers must have been 18 years of age or over on 1 January 2019.
• Each photographer can submit up to six photographs.
• Previous first prize-winners, since and including 2008, are not eligible to enter the competition.
• Entry forms and payment of entry fees must be completed by 17.00 on Tuesday 22 September 2020 (UK time).

Prizes 

The winner of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize will receive £15,000. In addition, the judges, at their discretion, will award cash prizes to one or more shortlisted photographers.

The prize winners and exhibition selection are judged on an equal and anonymous basis. Moreover, in 2019 the exhibition featured 55 portraits from 31 artists and was seen by over 42,000 people at the National Portrait Gallery.

Registration and Digital Upload 

• Please note that the entire judging for this year’s competition will be completed digitally.
• At registration, a digital image (or images from a series) must be uploaded onto the website.
• Each image must be saved as a JPG/JPEG and be smaller than 3 MB.
• Entrants whose payments cannot be cashed will be disqualified.
• All debit/credit card details must be completed and the expiry date must be at least two months after the date of entry.
• Furthermore, all entrants will be notified if their work has been selected for the online exhibition on Monday 19 October 2020.

Photographs

• All works entered must be the photographer’s own work.
• The photographs must be portraits. ‘Portrait’ may be interpreted in its widest sense, of ‘photography concerned with portraying people with an emphasis on their identity as individuals’.
• All photographs must have been taken by the entrant from life after 1 January 2019.
• Photographers must, if required, show proof of the date on which the photograph was taken.
• Photographs can be black and white or colour.
• Photographers may submit up to six individual portraits or portraits in a series. A ‘series’ may mean either a group of separate portraits around a particular theme or a number of pictures that when shown together combine to make up a single portrait work. The judges may choose to display a series in its entirety within the online exhibition.
• In producing the photograph you must comply with social distancing guidelines and legislation in the country where the photograph is taken in order to avoid putting yourself or anyone else at risk of catching or spreading Covid-19 (coronavirus).

Full competition rules here