National Portrait Gallery announces £15,000-winning portrait that conveys atypical image of motherhood
A portrait documenting an unconventional and “imperfect” example of motherhood has won one of the world’s most prestigious photography prizes.
The National Portrait Gallery has named the British photographer Steph Wilson as winner of the 2024 Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize for her portrait Sonam. The photographer, who works between London and Paris, wins £15,000.
The portrait, which is part of a larger project called Ideal Mother, features a sitter – Sonam – whom Wilson met through Instagram after asking for atypical mothers willing to be photographed. The artist’s ambition was to present sitters as more than just mothers, referring to all elements that contribute towards a whole person capable of many achievements.
Sonam is an unexpectedly masculine image of motherhood. The mother sits with her legs widely sprawled as her baby clings to her chest. She also has a direct and unsmiling gaze, close-cut hair and a moustache.
Sonam is a wig-maker by trade and we’re told she wears the false moustache as a statement of her career, as well as a reference to instances when she was encouraged to embrace her masculine features by friends and family.
