MELBOURNE photographer Hoda Afshar has won the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2015 for “Portrait of Ali” 2014, a portrait of a young Iranian boy in the mountainous terrain of Northern Iran.

Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Angus Trumble, made the announcement today, saying that the gallery was thrilled to award Ms Afshar the $25,000 prize for the most outstanding photographic portrait, selected from the lineup of 44 finalists selected by the judges, himself, NPG Senior Curator Christopher Chapman and guest judge, Australian photographer Nikki Toole.

Chapman said that the portrait was a unanimous choice. “The photographer has created a compelling portrait of the young boy. The rocky, misty setting creates a sense of mystery, intimating the boy’s future – likely as a shepherd.”

Toole, added “Hoda’s use of composition is a real highlight of the work. It has a beautiful cinematic quality.’

Afshar told “Citynews” that she had emigrated from Iran 8-9 years ago and that she while now likes to go back every several years, that this was the first time she had done a photographic work related to Iran.

The young boy Ali in her photograph, she said, was from a remote mountain province near the Caspian Sea, living in Soobatan, a small “forgotten” village ‘above the clouds’ – “no one knows about it.” To her, he represents children around the world who are considered “not smart enough to go to school” and who are vice educationally underprivileged. His likely future would be as a shepherd.

To Afshar, the essential emotion captured in her photograph is curiosity because “he was staring at me, he was staring at my camera… He gave me little berries and then he ran off.”

The Highly Commended award went to Katherine Williams for her portrait “Barry and Alkirra – The Carrington house” 2014. She received a prize provided by Eizo. Williams told “Citynews” that the young father in the picture was 17 years old and that she had documented other members of his family as part of a project. She said she always took a keen interest in the people that she photographed – “I don’t like to walk away,” she added.

The idea of the annual National Photographic Portrait Prize is to promote the best in contemporary photographic portraiture by both professional and aspiring Australian photographers. Among the enormously varied entries on show are a candid shot of the now-famous Wasikowska family in Canberra and a classically-inspired portrait of man and owl by Michael Kennedy.

Trumble described the  portrait prize announcement as “a red letter day for the gallery,” adding that the prize was going for from strength to strength, with numbers doubling in the past year. In his view this was because it gave “an insight into the souls of the nation.” As one of the people who had the “awesome task of judging,” it had been a surprisingly easy choice once they got down to the shortlist.

As for the apparent change of tone in the exhibition, which this year includes many examples of classical portraiture with a modern twist, he described it as “a passage from darkness to light” but declined to say more than that it showed the “sunny disposition of the otherwise objective judges.”

Trumble paused to note the passing of Malcolm Fraser, calling this “an important and sombre day” and assuring those present that the Gallery was in the process of hanging a portrait of the former Prime Minister.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2015, at the National Portrait Gallery, King Edward Terrace, Parkes, Open 10am – 5pm daily until June 8.

The exhibition will then tour extensively in Queensland including venues Artspace Mackay, Cairns Regional Gallery, Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery and Rockhampton Art Gallery.