Mick Hartley

The time has come round for the National Portrait Gallery's annual Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize exhibition. And this year's 1st prize winner…Sonam by Steph Wilson:

[Photo © Steph Wilson]

Not, as you might think, a trans man, but a woman wearing a false moustache. From the series Ideal Mother:

Wilson was compelled to broaden the existing aesthetics and visual language of pregnancy by focusing on what can sometimes dismissively be referred to as ‘socially atypical mothers’. In a bid to subvert this cycle of representation and to embrace all types of beauty, she has spent nearly three years in pursuit of this vulnerable and revealing project. Sonam's profession is a wig maker, and the prop, a replication of her father's moustache, represents a third generation in this unconventional family portrait.

Was compelled, no less. 

There are plenty of fine portraits in the show. In my opinion this isn't one of the best, but there you go. Of course it had to win.

There were, this aside, a few trans-themed contributions. Portrait of Ade "gives a glimpse into the journeys made and memories accumulated within a black trans body" and "asks us to consider the long established presence of queerness in nature", while Izzy, a portrait of  young lad with long hair, "is part of a project that [photographer] Charlotte Hadden has been working on for the past seven years, portraying young transgender people in the United Kingdom".

You get to understand how impossible it must be to be "gender-critical" in today's art world. There's simply no room for doubt that trans is the next stage along in the great liberation, after gays. Transgender people are to be celebrated, and admired for their bravery.

You can see a few more of the entries here at the Guardian.