This year’s Portrait of Britain winners lens a country during crisis and communion

Over the years, the British Journal of Photography’s Portrait of Britain has brought forth a massive amount of creative talent. Sam Gregg, Sophie Harris-Taylor and Brunel Johnson all featured in the Portrait of Britain 2020, and subsequent exhibition and hardback edition. The story is much the same this year, with photographers like Vivek Vadoliya and Sandra Mickiewicz among some of the exciting rising talent present.

The winners of the award – contributing to a total of 99 portraits between them – will be exhibited at a month-long digital exhibition across highstreets and bus shelters, in shopping malls and train stations across the UK, and featured in a hardback book featuring the 200 shortlisted images, published by Hoxton Mini Press.

Introducing the new collection of images, British Journal of Photography states: “From a north London cowboy and a Scottish football fan to familiar faces such as Grayson Perry and David Attenborough, the photographs act as vignettes of Britain, taking viewers on a ride across generations, geographies and genders.” JCDecaux’s Mark Bucknell adds: “We hope people are inspired by and even see themselves in the breadth of people that are featured in this initiative.”

Hannah Norton, one of the winners, documents how soaring energy and food prices in the UK have impacted people across the UK, particularly lensing the people at the heart of Community Cook Up, a food bank in Tottenham. “The aim of the work is to confront and challenge the current public perception of food insecurity informed by existing imagery,” the photographer states. An entry by Elainea Emmott is also outlined by the photographer: “Chris Kaba, an unarmed Black man, was shot dead by a police officer in south London. Here, a relative holds onto a friend in a silent thank you, after an inquest refuted the police’s claim that Kaba had been a suspect in a crime.”

Meanwhile, Kois Miah tells the untold stories of British Bangladeshis emanating from Brick Lane; Jennifer McCord captures 2022’s My Chemical Romance reunion; Manuel Vazquez shows Grayson Perry “wrapped in a test tapestry, fragile like his pottery”; Max Kessell spotlights the story behind the childhood of a north Londoner spent riding horses; and Afolabi Aderopo highlights “the emergence of African fashion across the globe”.