Ever since Sandra Bruce first laid eyes on Wayne Quilliam's photo of Eric Yunkaporta, it has stayed with her.
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It was as if the portrait, titled Silent Strength, was branded on her brain. There was just something about this photo of a First Nations man moments before going through a ceremonial right that resonated with the National Portrait Gallery's director of collection and exhibitions.
So much so, that even though she was presented with almost 2500 photos as part of judging this year's National Photographic Portrait Prize, Bruce kept coming back to the image of Eric Yunkaporta.
"It is interesting because essentially, it speaks to the tradition of photographic portraiture in that it feels very much like a formal studio portrait," Bruce says.
"But it is a formal portrait of an Aboriginal man in ceremonial ochre and headdress because he is going through a ceremonial right on Country in Aurukun, which is in far north Queensland.
"Wayne is a First Nations man, he's an Indigenous artist, and so he is playing in this contemporary space of using a traditional portraiture mechanism to give us insights into Eric Yunkaporta.
"It's that lovely push-pull between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lived experience and traditional Western portrait making."
Quilliam was announced as the winner of the 2022 portrait prize on Friday, but Silent Strength is just one portrait in the 50 finalists on show at the gallery.
Judged by Bruce, the gallery's associate curator Rebecca Ray and press photographer Nick Moir, the prize offers equal billing for amateur and professional photographers.
And while last year's portrait prize - titled Living Memory - overwhelmingly saw images of drought, fire and COVID take centre stage, this year there is a balance to the finalists' works.
"What struck me was the breadth of emotions and that sense of the universality of the emotions engendered by lived experience, regardless of whether they're your specific experience, or you're being invited in to learn about other people's," Bruce says.
"There was a lot of drama last year, a lot of intensity and a lot of drama. And there are still absolutely stories where we're being asked to have to deal with these things this year.
"But there are quieter moments. And there is the happy and the joy and the optimism in this year as well."
There are photos taken in backyards and at the beach. There are photos of kids on roller skates, and a little girl celebrating her birthday.
Sydney performance duo The Huxleys have a self-portrait in an embrace surrounded by flowers, and Andrew Rovenko has captured a charming child riding the bus in a spacesuit.
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And then there is Adam Ferguson's highly commended photo of Carlos Soyos and his son Enderson.
The portrait is part of a series Ferguson took at a migrant shelter on the Mexican/United States border, where the Guatemalan migrants were not just the portrait's sitters, but also in charge of when the photo was captured.
After mounting a camera on a tripod and setting up the shot, the Australian photographer then handed a cable release to the sitter to click at whatever moment they chose.
"They're very much in the moment, and they're very immediate, and him choosing to use black and white as his medium speaks to that gravitas that you get with documentary portraiture," Bruce says.
"Ultimately, the photographer is responsible for the framing of the work to ensure that it does have that aesthetic composition, but then he ultimately gave the final decision around turning it into a portrait to the sitter by giving them the trigger to click.
"And so how these people are presented in the portrait whether their eyes are opened or closed, whether their faces are turned - in this instance, there are two, there's Carlos and his son, Enderson - how they are engaging with each other as human beings, ultimately, that comes down to the sitter."
The National Photographic Portrait Prize is on at the National Portrait Gallery until October 9. For tickets go to portrait.gov.au.
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