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TAYLOR WESSING PHOTOGRAPHIC PRIZE 2020 : NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY LONDON : UK

November. 2020

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The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2020 is the leading international competition, open to all, which celebrates and promotes the very best in contemporary portrait photography from around the world. Showcasing talented young photographers, gifted amateurs and established professionals, the competition, showcases a diverse range of images and tells the often fascinating stories behind the creation of the works, from formal commissioned portraits to more spontaneous and intimate moments capturing friends and family. In 2020 I was honoured to be part of that exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery in London. My portrait of Prof. Tilman Ruff AO, Nobel Peace Laureate was selected to feature alongside many other photographers I admire.

tilman

Prof. Ruff is an associate professor at the Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne. He is also on the Australian Board of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the 2017 Nobel Peace Laureate and has written extensively on nuclear issues, including the hazards or ionizing radiation, nuclear weapons, nuclear war and nuclear famine. He serves as medical advisor to the international department of Australian Red Cross and is a member of the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region's Hepatitis B Expert Resource Panel. Ruff has previously led the development of travel medicines, worked on the control of Hepatitis B and worked to improve maternal and child health in Indonesia and the Pacific islands. He has also worked as a regional medical director for vaccines, employed by a major manufacturer. The campaign received the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize "for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons." Ruff has been an active member of the Medical Association for Prevention of War in Australia for over three decades and is a co-president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). He helped establish the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and was its founding chair. He remains a member of the ICAN Australia Committee and ICAN's International Steering Group.[3] In 2010, he told the Sydney Morning Herald: "We've come a long way. The numbers of nuclear weapons have been reduced from the peak of 70,000 in 1986 to about 23,000 - that's a drastic reduction."[4] Ruff co-authored an article with former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser entitled "2015 is the year to ban nuclear weapons." In 2017, Ruff expressed his pride at the work of ICAN and its receipt of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for “its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons”.

I cannot express what a joy it was to spend time with and photograph Tilman. His easy going entertaining nature made the process a breeze. The portrait is part of the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery of Australia.