Very happy to have been a finalist in the 2019 National Photographic Portrait Prize. A big thank you to Raynen for allowing me to take their portrait and for their trust. Thanks to everyone at the National Portrait Gallery for all their hard work on this exhibition and the opening night, and for being some of the friendliest and most enthusiastic gallery staff I have had the pleasure of meeting. The exhibition of 39 portraits will be on display at the National Portrait Gallery until Sunday 7 April 2019.
Please take the time to vote for your favourite image in the People's Choice awards here - https://nppp.portrait.gov.au/peoples-choice-award/
'Surreptitiously, I walk hallways to each room; I close doors achingly, in a backwards manner becoming apparition.'
So many of us are encouraged to ‘write ourselves in’, lest we not exist. These days, I’m increasingly returning to moments of holding and witnessing myself, within the realms of the ‘unsaid’, the ‘unseen’, or the ‘unimaginable’. In the privacy of this exchange with myself that does not warrant hearing to be valued, I make some return to not being ‘fully known’. – Raynen
Raynen is a gentle person, their manner reserved. They speak with consideration, pausing before each sentence. This image is from my second shoot with Raynen, on the roof of the co-op where they reside.
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