It is an image of stillness in an increasingly chaotic world: a young woman sits in a park, immersed in nature and music. And it has caught the mood of the times, becoming the winner of the 2023 Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait prize.
Judges awarded Alexandre Silberman the prestigious £15,000 prize for his picture Diena, which was taken in Paris’s La Courneuve Park. The winning portrait forms part of Silberman’s series Nature, which explores the intersection of human interventions and the natural world. Judges praised the image for its blend of the traditional and the contemporary, juxtaposing historical depictions of a Madonna with modern signifiers such as the sitter’s nose ring and headphones. The titular Diena, sitting for her first ever professional photograph, is wearing a floral blouse which appears to blend in with the park’s surrounding lawn.
