Picture of burn survivor wins Taylor Wessing picture portrait prize | Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize

A portrait of a burn survivor gazing thoughtfully out of a window has received one of many world’s most prestigious pictures prizes.

The National Portrait Gallery has named Martina Holmberg, a Stockholm-based photographer, as winner of the 2025 Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize for her portrait Mel. She wins £15,000.

Holmberg’s portrait options the sitter, Mel, showing misplaced in a daydream as cool mild caresses her repaired pores and skin.

When Mel was two years outdated, her mom left her and her sister within the automobile whereas she went to make a fast buy at a comfort retailer and when the mom returned, the automobile was on fireplace. Mel’s sister died whereas Mel survived with extreme burns.

Holmberg’s curiosity in pictures was sparked at a younger age by accompanying her father when he would develop his personal prints and images.

The portrait of Mel is an element of a bigger collection known as The Outside of the Inside, through which Holmberg paperwork folks with facial and bodily variations. The NPG mentioned the photographer paid tribute to the wealthy variety of appearances and introduced extra visibility to the discrimination confronted by these with bodily variations.

The judges counseled Mel for its mixture of compassionate method and technical ability, noting how the lighting and considerate pose drew viewers to the sitter’s story.

The £3,000 second prize went to Luan Davide Gray, a London-based positive artwork photographer, for We Dare to Hug, a black and white portrait of two males of their 60s sharing a young embrace.

The picture, which evokes sculpture by its composition and use of sunshine and shadow, reveals one man softly holding the opposite’s naked chest and gently kissing him on the cheek.

Gray has a level in visible communication from the University of Brighton and greater than 20 years of expertise as a hairstylist and inventive picture advisor.

The NPG mentioned the portrait, which is an element of a bigger collection, Call Me By Your Name, captured a second of mature intimacy that defied typical representations of bodily closeness.

The £2,000 third prize went to Byron Mohammad Hamzah, an NHS advisor and photographic artist, for his portrait Jaidi Playing. Part of the collection Bunga dan Tembok (The Flower and the Wall: The Stateless Youths of Semporna), the portrait depicts a baby, Jaidi, whose head is cradled within the palms of one other little one.

Hamzah has spent the previous two years working as a volunteer artwork and pictures instructor with an NGO based mostly in Sabah, East Malaysia, that gives free education for stateless and marginalised youth, notably from the Bajau Laut ethnic group.

Jaidi is a kind of kids. The NPG mentioned the portrait captured a second of tranquility inside a tumultuous and unsure existence. The judges had been drawn to the best way the portrait pictured a second of youthful connection whereas inviting questions from the small print it excludes.

The £8,000 photographic fee to create a brand new work for the NPG’s assortment was awarded to Hollie Fernando, a London- and Brighton-based photographer and director, for her portrait Boss Morris, from the collection Hoydenish.

The portrait explores the shift in gender equality inside morris dancing. Boss Morris is a younger, all-female morris facet based mostly in Stroud. The dancers are adorned in folkloric costume and make up as they huddle collectively for a gaggle portrait. The judges counseled the picture for its placing and otherworldly qualities.

The successful portraits shall be on show on the NPG as a part of the Taylor Wessing picture portrait prize 2025 exhibition, open from 13 November to eight February 2026. The exhibition additionally features a new portrait of the queer activist and advocate Lady Phyll, full identify Phyllis Akua Opoku-Gyimah, by final yr’s winner of the Taylor Wessing photographic fee, Jesse Navarre Vos.

The 2025 judging panel included the photographer and educator Sunil Gupta, the artwork historian and curator Katy Hessel, the photographer Tim Walker, and Sabina Jaskot-Gill, a senior curator of pictures on the NPG.