Naarm/Melbourne-based visual artist, Hoda Afshar, has won the National Photographic Portrait Prize for the second time with the work Untitled #01 (from the series code Black/Riot) 2024.


Untitled 01 from the series Code BlackRiot 2024 by Hoda Afshar, winner of this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize. © Hoda Afshar.

This is the second time Hoda Afshar has won the prestigious prize. Her 2025 winning work is part of a collaboration with a group of First Nations young people in far north Queensland that questions a system that targets and imprisons them from the age of 10.  The project, facilitated by the Cairns based Youth Empowered Towards Independence and Change the Record in Sydney, invited participants to have their portraits taken, using a means of their own choosing to conceal their identities while making a personal statement. ‘Some of them chose flowers or bubbles. Others a flag, mask or face paint. The three girls here chose this gesture,’ Afshar said. She wins $30,000 cash courtesy of the Gallery and $20,000 worth of equipment courtesy of Imaging Partner, Canon Australia.


Mother dreams on a stone, 2024 by Sherry Quiambao, the inaugural winner of the First Time Finalist Award. © Sherry Quiambao.

Sherry Quiambao is the inaugural winner of the First Time Finalist Award, with Mother dreams on a stone, 2024. An Australian-Filipino multidisciplinary artist based in Boorloo/Perth, Sherry Quiambao’s portrait of her mother explores themes of renewal, identity and belonging. ‘Wrapped in a golden emergency blanket and resting on a tumbled stone, my mother represents strength and adaptability, finding hope through her migration story. The golden blanket, a symbol of safety and care, contrasts with the grounding presence of the stone. Together, they reflect the tension between aspiration, humility, fragility and resilience,’ Quiambao said. The First Time Finalist Award replaces the Highly Commended Prize, and Quiambao is the recipient of a $3000 cash prize courtesy of EIZO.

The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025 will be on show from 16 August to 12 October 2025. All finalist works can be viewed, and tickets to the exhibition can be purchased on the Gallery’s website here.