Reuben Kaye Portrait For The Win!
It seems that my portrait of Reuben Kaye has picked up the Nyland Prize.
The Nyland Prize, will sits alongside the celebrated Kennedy Prize, is awarded to “photograph that embodies, comments on or celebrates beauty”.
This is a broad theme, and something like this is not really the kind of thing I enter. But this year, I thought a little deeper into the theme of beauty and what portrait I had taken that goes much deeper in beauty. That is when this shot of Reuben came to mind.
I had met Reuben about five minutes before I took this photo, and that is how long he knew I was going to take his photo. While I knew of him, I’d never really seen him perform or known much about his story. But he makes an impression. So I did a deep dive on him and I came to love him for more than his talent.
When submitting for the prize, I put this artist’s statement alongside the image.
“This was the first time I’d met Reuben, an award-winning cabaret performer. I really did not know much about him but the impact of this quick 3-minute session made me dive deeply into learning how he prods where society needs prodding, makes us laugh when we need it and uses his beautiful talent to be a champion for the queer community.”
Judges Statement: “The winning image captivated the judges with its masterful use of lighting, composition, and contrast, resulting in a powerful, engaging, and beautiful portrait.
The image holds our gaze and challenges the viewer to look deeper into the subject and to contemplate notions of beauty.
Inviting us past physical beauty – to reveal the beauty within: strength, confidence, resilience.”
The image is part of my “A Variety of Late-Nite Variety-Nite Night Portraits” series taken back stage at The Arts Centre Melbourne at Ali McGregor’s legendary variety night.
The portraits were taken of every act on the bill for the whole season, with each session taking less than five minutes in a small dressing room that I commandeered from Ali.
The Nyland Prize is exhibited at the Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Institute Building, corner North Terrace & Kintore Avenue, Adelaide, South Australia, until Sunday, 22nd September 2024.
Some links…
Visit the full project page.
Buy the book A Variety of Late-Nite Variety-Nite Night Portaits from the Photobat bookshop.
Check out Reuben’s brilliant Ted Talk.
