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Zoom in on life at portrait show

Angela Kelly
2/ 7/2008

STUNNING prize-winning entries from a major photographic competition have come to the Lowry straight from the London’s National Portrait Gallery.

The images, which range from intimate and personal photographs of friends and family to hard-hitting journalistic shots from around the world, make up the final selection of 60 works entered for the Photographic Portrait Prize.

The overall winner of the coveted trophy is Jonathan Torgovnik for his powerful picture of Joseline Ingabire, a victim of rape during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Photographed with her two children, born at the height of the conflict, Joseline’s portrait explores the terrible impact of the atrocities of war while raising awareness of the plight of thousands of women who were abused.

The exhibition includes some fascinating images from the north west, like Jonathan Anderson and Edwin Low’s close-up of trapeze artists from Blackpool circus Eclipse. Fourth prize was won by Lancaster-born David Stewart’s photo of Alice & Fish, a sensitive portrait of his teenage daughter pictured at Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria "in her ‘emo’ phase." There are pictures of celebrities Amy Winehouse, Alex "Hurricane" Higgins and Sir Ian McKellen, alongside images of unknown individuals.

Women and children are a strong theme in the display, from an apprentice geisha in full costume to an oriental woman playing the piano and children playing in the garden of Princess Mafalda von Hessen.

Third prize winner Michelle Sank shows the complexity of adolescence with her picture of a teenage girl who at first sight seems very self-assured and empowered. Then the viewer’s eye is drawn to the scars and scratches on her arm, revealing a tendency for self-harming.

The competition, which highlights emerging talent from photography students and gifted amateurs to established professionals, attracted a record 2,700 entrants this year.

It has a substantial prize fund, the top one totalling £12,000 coupled with a high-profile exhibition, and allows the international mix of photographers to present a diverse range of styles and innovative approaches to the portrait genre.

There are contrasts between the use of colour, black and white, analogue or digital technology as well as scale, lighting and technique in this vast array of impressive work. For the panel of judges, including chair Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, the competition’s photographs proved "outstanding."

Photographic Portrait Prize 2007 runs until September 21 at the Lowry.