'Unflinchingly honest' photo by Shea Kirk takes out 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize at National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery announced on Friday that Shae Kirk's nude portrait of friend and fellow artist "Ruby" was the winner of this year's award.

Dean, and fellow judges, National Portrait Gallery senior curator Joanna Gilmour and Centre for Contemporary Photography director Daniel Boetker-Smith, said Kirk's 2022 work was a celebration of photography that made portraiture look effortless.

"It's unflinchingly honest, and true and humble. And in all of those things, really beautiful," she said.

"He captured his sitter in a way that feels true. He is technically beautiful and perfect, you can see every detail. But while looking around the photograph, you just always come back to Ruby's face. And I think that there's a real strength in having captivated their character."

Taken in the artist's inner-Melbourne studio, the portrait, titled Ruby (left view), reflects the sitter's changing attitude to their body, and how it fits within society.

The work is one of two portraits in their year's portrait prize featuring the same sitter. Ruby, real name Emma Armstrong-Porter, also features in a self-portrait titled Sisters or Friends.

On his winning work, Kirk said like other portraits he takes, it was a result of a slow process, with photoshoots often taking between three and nine hours.

"It's about spending that time with whoever I'm working with. To talk through everything and make sure what we're capturing is a true representation of self, that they get the opportunity to be their own voice and have that agency over the representation," he said.

"It's also really nice that I'm here with a work of someone who I consider to be a lovely friend, and also someone whose own art practice, I respect a lot."

Kirk wins $30,000 cash from the National Portrait Gallery and $20,000 worth of equipment from Canon Australia.

Also announced on Friday was the Highly Commended Prize, which went to Renae Saxby for her 2022 work, Bangardidjan. A photo of Kine, Rembarrnga, and Dalabon woman Cindy Rostron on the road in remote Central Arnhem Land, she is featured in the family car with a buffalo skull painted by her father Victor Rostron strapped to the roof.

Judges said the work had "exceptional cinematic quality, encapsulating an entire story, and while there is so much to see from a narrative point of view, it is the sitter's gaze which draws you in".

Saxvy's wins a ColorEdge monitor valued at almost $4000 from EIZO.

The National Photographic Prize is on show at the National Portrait Gallery until October 2.

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