by A portrait of a burn victim looking thoughtfully out of a window has won one of the world’s most prestigious photography awards.
The National Portrait Gallery has named Martina Holmberg, a Stockholm-based photographer, as the winner of the 2025 Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize for Photography for her portrait Mel. She wins £15,000.
In Holmberg’s portrait, the sitter, Mel, appears to be lost in a daydream as cool light caresses her repaired skin.
When Mel was two years old, her mother left her and her sister in the car while she went to do a quick grocery run at a supermarket, and when the mother returned, the car was on fire. Mel’s sister died, while Mel survived with severe burns.
Holmberg’s interest in photography was sparked at a young age when she accompanied her father as he developed his own prints and photographs.
The portrait of Mel is part of a larger series called “The Outside of the Inside,” in which Holmberg documents people with facial and body differences. The NPG said the photographer celebrated the rich diversity of appearance and made discrimination against people with physical differences more visible.
The judges praised Mel’s combination of compassionate approach and technical skill, highlighting how the lighting and thoughtful pose drew viewers’ attention to the sitter’s story.
The second prize of £3,000 went to Luan Davide Gray, a London-based fine art photographer, for “We Dare to Hug,” a black and white portrait of two men in their 60s tenderly embracing each other.
The image, reminiscent of sculpture through its composition and use of light and shadow, shows a man gently holding the other’s bare chest and kissing him gently on the cheek.
Gray has a degree in Visual Communications from the University of Brighton and over 20 years experience as a hairdresser and creative image consultant.
The NPG said the portrait, part of a larger series called “Call Me By Your Name,” captured a moment of mature intimacy that contradicted conventional depictions of physical closeness.
The third prize of £2,000 went to Byron Mohammad Hamzah, an NHS consultant and photographic artist, for his portrait ‘Jaidi Playing’. The portrait is part of the series Bunga dan Tembok (The Flower and the Wall: The Stateless Youth of Semporna) and shows a child, Jaidi, whose head is in the hands of another child.
For the past two years, Hamzah has worked as a volunteer art and photography teacher at an NGO based in Sabah, East Malaysia, which provides free schooling to stateless and marginalized youth, particularly from the Bajau Laut ethnic group.
Jaidi is one of these children. The NPG said the portrait captured a moment of calm in a turbulent and uncertain life. Jurors were drawn to the way the portrait depicted a moment of youthful connection while raising questions about the details it omitted.
The £8,000 photographic commission to create a new work for the NPG collection was awarded to Hollie Fernando, a London and Brighton-based photographer and director, for her portrait Boss Morris from the Hoydenish series.
The portrait examines the changing gender equality in Morris dancing. Boss Morris is a young, all-female Morris team based in Stroud. The dancers are dressed in folkloric clothing and apply makeup as they huddle together for a group portrait. The jury praised the image for its impressive and otherworldly qualities.
The winning portraits will be on display at the NPG as part of the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2025 exhibition, open from November 13 to February 8, 2026. The exhibition also includes a new portrait of queer activist and advocate Lady Phyll, full name Phyllis Akua Opoku-Gyimah, by last year’s Taylor Wessing photography commission winner, Jesse Navarre Vos.
The 2025 jury included photographer and educator Sunil Gupta, art historian and curator Katy Hessel, photographer Tim Walker and Sabina Jaskot-Gill, a senior curator of photography at the NPG.
