Visual artist Hoda Afshar has claimed victory in Australia's National Photographic Portrait Prize for her compelling work "Untitled 01," which addresses the critical issue of Indigenous children in youth detention. The award-winning photograph features three First Nations girls making defiant gestures with their middle fingers toward the camera, creating a powerful statement about resistance and agency. This marks the second time the Melbourne-based artist has received this prestigious recognition.

Afshar's winning entry emerged from her collaboration with two First Nations-led nonprofit organizations: Change the Record and Youth Empowerment Towards Independence (YETI) in Far North Queensland. Working in the backyard of a YETI-run program in Cairns, she set up her camera and invited young people to have their portraits taken while maintaining their anonymity. The artist encouraged participants to "send a message to the audience" if they chose to do so, resulting in various creative approaches to self-expression.

"One was covering their head with the flag, another one was making a mask, [another using] face paint, and so on – and the three girls chose this gesture," Afshar explained. "When I looked through the camera, I saw their agency. That they watched their friends doing different poses and they decided this is how they want to respond to whoever is looking at them." She noted that while the gesture was partly about the girls wanting to appear strong and rebellious, she could also see that "they didn't want sympathy."

To Afshar, the girls' gesture represents a profound act of resistance against both authority and the camera itself, embodying "a refusal to be, or to be seen, as passive." She emphasized that the pose was clearly intended as a message to viewers, given the challenging conditions and circumstances these young people face. "There was something quite powerful in that moment that I thought, 'This is not just an image of them, but an image of us too as a society today and where we're standing in relation to the First Nations peoples,'" she reflected.

The artist revealed that her primary motivation for entering the competition wasn't to win a second prize, but rather to draw urgent attention to the alarming rates of Indigenous youth incarceration in Australia. She highlighted the stark statistics: "First Nations children aged 10 to 17 make up only 6.6 percent of their age group in the general population, yet they are 29 times more likely to be imprisoned." Afshar stressed that while she identifies as "an art worker and a cultural worker" rather than a politician, one doesn't need political expertise to recognize the injustice of imprisoning children.

The 2025 National Photographic Portrait Prize also introduced a new award category, with artist Sherry Quiambao winning the inaugural First Time Finalist Award for her photograph "Mother Dreams On A Stone." This piece replaced the usual Highly Commended Prize and features Quiambao's own mother exploring themes of renewal, identity, and belonging. "Wrapped in a golden emergency blanket and resting on a tumbled stone, my mother represents strength and adaptability, finding hope through her migration story," Quiambao explained. The golden blanket symbolizes safety and care while contrasting with the grounding presence of the stone, reflecting the tension between aspiration, humility, fragility, and resilience.

Additionally, artist and four-time prize finalist George Fetting received this year's Art Handler's Award for his piece "Antonio Initili – Sartoria (Tailor Shop) 01." National Portrait Gallery Director Bree Pickering praised this year's finalists for representing artists and subjects from across Australia, noting that "The National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition foregrounds the artist's voice. In each of the finalist works, subjects are revealed from the artist's point of view."

Pickering emphasized that the works serve as invitations into the intimate world of subject-artist relationships and reflect the diverse communities in which we all live. All 2025 finalists will be displayed at the National Portrait Gallery from August 16 to October 12, providing visitors with an opportunity to engage with these powerful visual narratives that challenge, inspire, and provoke important conversations about contemporary Australian society.