Abbie Trayler-Smith Success At Taylor Wessing Prize

In addition to winning second prize at this years prestigious Taylor Wessing Photographic Prize at the National Portrait Gallery, Abbie Trayler Smith's 'Fleeing Mosul' won the the 'Peoples Pick' for best photograph. The People’s Pick, allows exhibition visitors the opportunity to vote for their favourite portrait in the show. This year 6,529 votes were cast between 16 November 2017 and 1 February 2018.

This portrait was made outside the Hasan Sham camp for internally displaced people in northern Iraq during an assignment for Oxfam. A convoy of buses had just arrived, bringing people to safety from the intense fighting in Mosul. She says, ‘I remember seeing the shock and bewilderment in the woman’s face as she looked out at the camp from the window. It made me shudder to imagine what living under ISIS must have been like.’
 

This year’s main competition was judged by:

Nicholas Cullinan (Chair and Director, National Portrait Gallery)
David Campany (Writer, Curator and Artist)
Tim Eyles, Managing Partner, Taylor Wessing LLP
Sabina Jaskot-Gill (Associate Curator, Photographs, National Portrait Gallery)
Fiona Shields (Head of Photography, Guardian)
Gillian Wearing (Artist)

The prize winners and exhibition selection was judged on an equal and anonymous basis.

'Fleeing Mosul' is included in the exhibition 'After Darkness' at Anima-Mundi. Click the image below to view the exhibition: