The National Portrait Gallery has published the full shortlist of the 2018 Photographer of the Year competition – with no fewer than 13 women making the list
On this year’s shortlist, we have a picture of a kindergarten teacher playing with a chubby child, a woman photographing a wedding on the beach and a woman washing her feet by the river. Other images include a group of pre-schoolers lying together – being taught by the teacher herself – a group of women in Rio doing yoga and a surfer surfing a white wave – a scene that photographer Heidi Kurnatowski described as a “history in the making”.
This year, the award recognises the role of the Irish photographer, Caroline Henshaw, who took a portrait of a local woman, Cheryl Kinloch, who runs a family tea room in Bray, Ireland, and is battling a rare form of brain cancer. The picture is on the shortlist alongside Henshaw’s closeup of another elderly woman, Mary Harford, who lost both her legs to polio.
Henshaw has become something of a celebrity in recent years after her photographic history of her hometown was published by Tate.
This year’s photography prize celebrates artists born and educated in Europe or the US and includes 12 men and four women. These artists have shown their work in the UK, US and Sweden as well as Ireland, Canada and Russia. Many of the artists are also notable video and installation artists. The National Portrait Gallery and RAC BP Portrait Award are jointly sponsoring the photography prize.
This year’s shortlist
Mimi Ladanyi, Chasing the Fire: Whitney Houston and Joni Mitchell, 1967 & 1971, acrylic on canvas
Christian Haaheim, Painter as Beauty, photographic series
Christian Haaheim, Painter as Beauty, photographic series
Alan Lopez, Anti Humanity, photography installation
William Powhida, A Tradition of Birds, photography on three large boards.
Inna Anajukova, With Her Voice: Photographer Anna Klimenko, portrait
Heidi Kurnatowski, As a Tribute to Mother Earth, film, photographs
Nana B. Busawa, From Soko, photography
Caroline Henshaw, Cheryl Kinloch: Person In Shadows, portrait
Caroline Henshaw, Cheryl Kinloch: The Bully Face, portrait
Heidi Kurnatowski, Walking Towards Sand, video installation
Lawrie Makonnen, Thawfish: Bindle and Remember: Carmen Wong, installation
Kimberly Cormier, Looking for a Narrative, video installation
Fiona McMillan, Mindpicker: Pat Rawlings and Charlotte Grogan, photography
Rani Amri, Oh Life, video installation
Photographer of the Year National Portrait Gallery