WAYNE Quilliam’s portrait “Silent Strength” 2021, depicting Aurukun man Eric Yunkaporta in ceremonial head-wear, has won the 2022 National Photographic Portrait.

Quilliam is a leading indigenous photographic artist, curator and cultural advisor and describes the portrait as like capturing Mother Earth.

“My role as a storyteller continues to evolve and this capture is akin to a trickle of water merging into a small stream then into the ocean,” he says.

In making their decision, the judging panel – press photographer Nick Moir together with Sandra Bruce, the gallery’s director of collection and exhibitions and associate curator Rebecca Ray – said Quilliam’s portrait was a work of immense power and beauty.

Quilliam wins $30,000 cash from the National Portrait Gallery and $20,000 worth of photographic equipment.

NSW-born, New York-based photographer Adam Ferguson won the highly commended prize for his portrait of Guatemalan migrant Carlos Soyos and his eight-year-old son Enderson, taken at the migrant shelter on the Mexican/US border.

The National Photographic Portrait Prize is on show at the NPG.