A portrait series on all-female teams of drum majorettes in South Africa’s Western Cape province has won a major photography award.
Alice Mann, a London-based photographic artist, was awarded the 2018 Taylor Wessing prize 2018 at the National Portrait Gallery, London, on Tuesday, for four pictures of the majorettes.
Many of the drummies, as they are affectionately known, come from some of the most disadvantaged communities in Mann’s native country.
It is the first time in the competition’s history that a series of images has won rather than an individual photograph; the rules were changed to permit multiple pictures in 2015.
Mann said: “These four portraits are some of my favourite images, especially the one of Riley and Wakiesha because they are so charismatic. For these girls, involvement in drummies becomes a vehicle for them to excel, and the distinctive uniforms serve as a visual marker of perceived success and represents emancipation from their surroundings.
“Continuing my consideration into notions of femininity and empowerment in modern society, it was my intent to create images that reflect the pride and confidence the girls achieve through identifying as drummies.”
Her portraits were chosen from a shortlist of four entries, which had been whittled down from from 4,462 submissions by 1,973 photographers from 70 countries.
The judges praised Mann’s series for “its evocation of a sustained and intriguing narrative. Each sitter is precisely framed within a carefully considered composition, and the girls confidently meet the camera’s gaze. Their pristine and vibrant outfits jar with the rundown surroundings, lending a surreal and enigmatic atmosphere to the portraits.”
Enda Bowe, was awarded the £3,000 second prize for his photograph of a woman holding her baby on a housing estate in Clapton, east London, part of a series called Clapton Blossom.
The judges described Bowe’s portrait as tender, tracing “the emotional connection between a new parent and her baby, evoking traditional compositions of a mother and child. Further scrutiny reveals details, including Cybil’s piercings, tattoos and adorned nails, which with the urban setting, give a contemporary update to this classical theme.” Bowe, an Irish photographer based in London, said he was trying to find “the colour and beauty in the urban, the light in the grey”.
Third prize went jointly to Max Barstow for his double portrait of a pair of shoppers taken in London, and Canadian-born Joey Lawrence, now based in New York, for his photograph of a child from a village in the jungle of Sierra Leone’s Eastern Province. They are awarded £2,000 each.
Since the competition began in 1993, it has provided many of the winners with exposure they had not previously experienced and a launchpad to illustrious careers.
All four images will be part of the annual Taylor Wessing exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, which begins on Thursday and runs until 27 January 2019.