MELBOURNE artist Kristina Kraskov’s image of Michelle, the self-styled “suburban fashionista”, has won the 2021 National Photographic Portrait Prize People’s Choice Award of $5000, it was  announced this morning (December 14).

The portrait, “I’m just a suburban fashionista”, which previously won the 2021 Art Handler’s Award, was taken inside Michelle’s colourful and eclectic house, which is filled with artworks, ornaments, trinkets and curiosities.

Kraskov, better known as a documentary filmmaker, said the photo reflects her interest in unusual and obscure subjects and stories, which she often finds “in hidden places”.

Robert Reason, museum director for the David Roche Foundation,  which sponsored the award, said he was equally enamoured of the  portrait.

“Michelle’s house is a kind of museum to her life, and it is easy to assume that every object has a story attached to it. The power of this photograph is in the detail, and the layers that reveal themselves with longer inspection, so I am not surprised so many people responded so positively to it,” he said.

The 2021 “Living Memory” edition of the National Photographic Portrait Prize runs at the National Portrait Gallery until January 16.