A portrait from the series "Beauty Pageants" by Lidia Kowalewicz, photo courtesy of the artist 

The Polish photographer is one of just 60 photographers from over 2500 entrants selected to exhibit at this year's Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize held at the National Portrait Gallery

A portrait from her ongoing series "Beauty Pageants" will be on show. For her project Kowalewicz photographs children participating in beauty pageants, who she says are expected to fit western ideals and so face extreme pressure to be successful, "receiving a sense of their own self worth through the validation of beauty pageant judges applying adult beauty criteria".



Lidia Kowalewicz was born in Poland and graduated this year in Photography and Digital Imaging at the University of West London. Her interests include societies in their attempt to follow Western patterns, pop culture aspects of transformation, female and gender issues and also the influence of the media and the environment on the formation of the human persona. She is currently based in London, where she works as a freelance photographer.

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011 offers a unique opportunity to see sixty works by some of the most exciting contemporary portrait photographers from around the world. This year the competition attracted over 6,000 submissions from 2,506 photographers ranging from gifted amateurs and talented young students to established professionals

For more information about the artist see her personal website: www.lidiakowalewicz.com

.

The exhibition runs from the 10th of November 2011 till the 12th of February 2012.

National Portrait Gallery

St Martin’s Place
London WC2H 0HE



Source: Polish Cultural Institute in London