Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, one of the leading international competition which celebrates the best in contemporary portrait photography from all around the world, is back. The selected images will be on exhibition from 17 November to 26 February 2017 at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
This year the shortlist shows a diverse range of subjects, from Tintype portraits of surfers on the Californian coastline, to Israeli Orthodox Jews, and African teenagers in their school uniforms. Three photographers have been shortlisted for the prestigious award, among which the Swiss-Italian Claudio Rasano, from Basel. His portrait of 18-year-old Katlehong Matsenen is part of the series Similar Uniforms: We Refuse to Compare, taken in February 2016 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The project focuses on issues of preserving individuality in the context of school uniforms. The photograph was shot in daylight, outdoors and in front of a plain white paper background, keeping the focus on the individual. The series itself features different schoolboys and schoolgirls wearing similar uniforms.
As he writes in his website, his tool, the camera, is always discrete, never obtrusive, truly honest. He takes pictures when people agree.
Rasano has already exhibited in the capital at Lens-Culture Exposure Awards, Photo London in 2015.
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