Portrait Prize for Alys Tomlinson

December 17, 2020

Alys Tomlinson wins the 2020 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize for her solitary prom portraits of teens who graduated during the pandemic.
Alys Tomlinson is the first-place winner of the 2020 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize. The British photographer, who stands to receive £15,000, was chosen for her series ‘Lost Summer’ – comprising portraits of London teens whose graduation proms were cancelled due to the pandemic. Tomlinson persuaded her subjects to dress up in the finery they would have worn, and captured them in their back gardens or local parks.

“The school year ended abruptly, with no opportunity to say goodbye to friends and nothing to mark the occasion of leaving school,” the photographer explains. “I wanted to photograph each teenager framed by nature, merging their inner and outer worlds.”

This year’s winners of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize were announced on the National Portrait Gallery’s social media channels. The second prize goes to Lydia Goldblatt for ‘Eden’, a portrait of her young daughter who spent much of the lockdown period playing alone in the garden. Yolanda Y. Liou took third place with her portrait of plus size model and Instagram influencer Enam Ewura Adjoa Asiama.

The winning portraits are showcased as part of an online exhibition on the National Portrait Gallery website.

For further details visit National Portrait Gallery
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Portrait Prize for Alys Tomlinson