The National Portrait Gallery announced on Tuesday that Tony Sowersby and Luther Cora are the winners of the People Choice Awards for the Darling Portrait Prize and the National Photographic Portrait Prize, respectively.

The National Portrait Gallery's prize season - and the two exhibitions that coincide with it - close on October 9.

Sowersby's Sabine Desrondaux, Woman of Letters, captures the image of the postie who delivers to his Melbourne home. During the pandemic lockdowns, Sabine Desrondaux was one of the few people he interacted with.

"It's a tribute to the courage and determination of all those who kept society functioning, and you can see those attributes on her face," the artist said.

The work was one of the 39 finalists in this year's Darling Portrait Prize. Now in its second year, the biennial award was taken out by Jaq Grantford's self-portrait.

Overall, however, the exhibition depicted the full spectrum of post-COVID life.

Sowersby has won a $10,000 cash prize, which is a donation from founding benefactors of the National Portrait Gallery, the Liangis family. John Liangis said Sowersby's portrait was a most fitting work to win the 2022 People's Choice Award.

"Given the events of the past two years, it is wonderful to see a portrait of an everyday hero selected to win this prize. It's a great portrait, full of detail, capturing both a sense of pride and charm in the subject," he said.

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Cora's portrait Flora and Fauna, Giara: White Cockatoo, is one of a series the Queensland artist took of his daughter Giara in a makeshift studio in his Gold Coast home during the lockdown.

"I put up a black sheet in my loungeroom, made some floral head-pieces out of native flowers and took photos of my daughters," he said.

"It was something to do during lockdown, and because I wasn't working I was able to focus more on my photography."

Cora, a Yugambeh/Bundalung man, said the photo also reflects his thoughts about Indigenous First Nations people, "and if we are still classed as flora and fauna."

The work is one of the 50 finalists in this year's National Photographic Portrait Prize, which was taken out by Wayne Quilliam with his portrait Silent Strength.

Cora won $5000 for the People's Choice Award thanks to the David Roche Foundation.

"Luther Cora's photograph questions the historic and current position of First Nations people in our community. This sensitive portrayal of Cora's daughter is a most deserving win," David Roche Foundation museum director Robert Reason said.

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