A series of portraits documenting the mundane, daily chores of life in lockdown have won one of the world’s most prestigious photography prizes.
The National Portrait Gallery has named French photographer Clémentine Schneidermann as winner of the 2022 Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize for her series Laundry Day. The photographer, who lives and works between Paris and south Wales, wins £15,000.
The portraits in Laundry Day depict Schneidermann’s neighbours hanging laundry in the garden of their home in south Wales. The socially distanced works are part of a series of photographs taken during times of quarantine, self-isolation and national lockdowns in the UK.
“These images are a response to a quiet time when approaching strangers was very challenging,” Schneidermann said. “They speak about the duality between stagnation and passage of time. My neighbour’s garden became a tiny imaginary stage where from my window I documented small moments of her life.”
The artist said she was inspired by domestic spaces and chores which are often overlooked and the ability of photography to create a “poetical narrative” from these small moments. “Photographers such as Stephen Gill, Paul Cabuts or Nigel Shafran have been an inspiration in how they beautifully photographed the mundanity of our current landscapes as well as non-places surrounding us,” she said.
Schneidermann also spoke of the significance of her images being shortlisted for a portraiture award “in a time where selfies and faces are everywhere around us. By hiding a face, I show the hidden rather than the visible – older people are also often invisible in our society so I am happy that these images are getting some attention.”
The judges praised the simplicity of Schneidermann’s project and said the images evoked a strong sense of stillness and quiet, as well as loneliness and isolation – despite the proximity of the photographer. They commended the unusual perspective of the portraits, which are close but not close enough to see the sitter’s face – which they felt “was an intriguing play with the conventions of traditional portraiture”.
The £3,000 second prize went to South African visual poet and activist Haneem Christian for their entries Mother and Daughter, and Rooted. Christian’s photography explores queerness and transness in relation to family, race and identity.
Mother and Daughter depicts Cheshire Vineyard and Autumn May, who are both trans feminine artists from Cape Town, while Rooted depicts a figure in a woodland setting, honouring “the journey of returning to the self by seeing yourself through the eyes of a loved one”.
The £2,000 third prize went to Alexander Komenda, a Polish-Canadian documentary photographer and artist, for his work Zahid’s Son, which examines identity and the post-imperialist landscape of the Fergana valley, which spreads across Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
The three winners were chosen from 4,462 submissions entered by 1,697 photographers from 62 countries. A total of 51 portraits from 36 artists have also been selected for display from 27 October until 18 December at Cromwell Place in South Kensington, as the National Portrait Gallery’s usual building in St Martin’s Place is being redeveloped.
Chaired by Dr Nicholas Cullinan, director of the National Portrait Gallery, this year’s judging panel included Christina Lamb, chief foreign correspondent at the Sunday Times, the photographer Siân Davey, Shoair Mavlian, director of Photoworks and Eva Eicker, NPG curator.
