Direct from the National Portrait Gallery, Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize 2025 will be at Millennium Gallery for just a few weeks.
The exhibit showcases 50 works from traditional to contemporary techniques of portraiture to represent people, places and experiences lived.
This exhibition is a competition that acts as a launch for contemporary photographers from all over the world, who, through their photography, showcase a range of characters, moods and locations – that all have a unique perspective and message.
Open to anyone from amateur to professional photographers, who are looking to exhibit their work worldwide, the aim of this year’s international photography exhibit is to show society’s perspective on each other, whilst also reflecting on oneself by seeing life through an outside lens.
The portrait Mel (2024) by Martina Holmberg from the series The Outside of the Inside received the 2025 prize receiving £15,000. Her portrait shows Mel, a burn survivor, looking out of a window lost in thought. It was made to resemble a princess looking out of her tower, in order to balance imagination and reality.
The runners-up can also be seen in the exhibit, Luan Davide Gray and Byron Mohammad Hamzah, as well as many other artists, with the photographs ranging from informal snapshots of everyday life to formal portraits.
The exhibition also includes the Taylor Wessing Photographic Commission winner, Hollie Fernando for Boss Morris (2024), from the series Hoydenish.
Fernando’s aim was to explore the shift in gender equality within Morris dancing. The photo presents Boss Morris: a young, all female Morris side based in Stroud, who are shown in full folkloric dress and make up as they huddle together for a group portrait.
Fernando wanted to convey the spirit, ambition, yet creativity of her subjects.
Kirstie Hamilton, Director of Programmes at Sheffield Museums, said, “We’re delighted to be the only venue outside London to show this year’s Taylor Wessing Prize and to showcase such striking and powerful examples of world-class photography at the Millennium Gallery.”
The exhibition is free and open to the public until Sunday 10 May.