Each year, the National Portrait Gallery in London, England, runs its Winston Taylor Photo Portrait Prize competition (formerly Taylor Wessing), attracting submissions from both professionals and amateurs across the world. At this year’s edition, 3,977 portraits were submitted.
The event organizers have now whittled these down to just four finalist images, which will vie for the top prize of £15,000 (approximately $20,300 / AU$28,500) and recognition from a lauded art institution.
Entrants were encouraged to interpret ‘portrait’ in its “widest sense”, with judges keen to see portraits emphasizing the “individual identity” of their subjects.
In the running is the proud shot of a teenage Cuban fencer called Neisser, taken by British photographer James Clifford Kent. Neisser comes from an accomplished family of musicians, but the aspiring pentathlete is forging his own path, making a name for himself as one of Cuba’s top fencers.
Challenging are Marcie Doherty (UK) and Katie Hitchcock-Smith (US). Doherty’s gritty rendering of American football culture on a cold UK street corner does away with the glitz and glamor that are lavishly poured on high school sports stars in the US.
Meanwhile, Hitchcock-Smith took a more humorous photojournalistic approach to documenting Nour, Mohamed and their camel. The photographer kitted out the Moroccan men with a cowboy hat from home and a jacket bought at a local market.
The final of the coveted four comes from Max Pattenden, a UK-based 24-year-old photographer. In the black-and-white close-up frame we see Havannah, a 10-year-old girl with a curious yet enlightening expression on her face, leaving it up to the viewer to decide the narrative.
The National Portrait Gallery will announce the winner of the Winston Taylor Photo Portrait Prize 2026 on November 03, with all 56 finalist images to be showcased in an exhibition at the gallery from November 05 2026, to January 17 2027.
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