Yan Wang Preston’s new work After ‘Olympia, 1863’, 2023_A Self-Portrait has been selected for the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2024 by the National Portrait Gallery, London, UK.

The print is selected from 4,847 entries submitted by 1,713 photographers. With another 61 portraits by 54 photographers, the work is set to be displayed at the Gallery from 14 November 2024 to 16 February 2025. The 2024 judging panel included multimedia artist Pogus Caesar; curator Alona Pardo; writer and curator Lou Stoppard; and the National Portrait Gallery’s Curator of Photography Clare Freestone.

After ‘Olympia, 1863’, 2023_A Self-Portrait was produced as part of her project After ‘Olympia, 1863’ during a test shoot. Although the more formal work in the project was made in a fully restaged studio with professional styling, this image was recognised as a raw portrait of Wang Preston as a working photographer in her own studio, without any makeup. As such, the photograph was shot on a 10*8 camera with silver gelatin film. The artist developed the film and made the contact print by herself. It is this contact print that made it to the National Portrait Gallery.