Announcing the 2023 Aperture Portfolio Prize Shortlist

Aperture’s support of emerging photographers and other lens-based artists is a vital part of our mission. The annual Aperture Portfolio Prize aims to discover, exhibit, and publish new talents in photography—identifying contemporary trends in the field and highlighting artists whose work deserves greater recognition.

Aperture’s editors reviewed over one thousand submissions, and we are thrilled to announce the shortlisted artists for the 2023 Aperture Portfolio Prize:

Samantha Box
Brian Lau
Akshay Mahajan
Vân-Nhi Nguyễn
Ziyu Wang

These artists join the ranks of illustrious winners and artists shortlisted for the Portfolio Prize in past years, including Felipe Romero Beltrán, Dannielle Bowman, Alejandro Cartagena, Jessica Chou, Eli Durst, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Natalie Krick, Daniel Jack Lyons, Mark McKnight, Drew Nikonowicz, Sarah Palmer, RaMell Ross, Bryan Schutmaat, Donavon Smallwood, Ka-Man Tse, and Guanyu Xu.

The 2023 Portfolio Prize winner, to be announced on Friday, May 12, will be published in Aperture magazine, receive a $3,000 cash prize and a $1,000 gift card to shop for gear at mpb.com, and present an exhibition at Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York. Each runner-up will receive an online feature.

Alongside the five shortlisted artists, twenty finalists were selected by Aperture’s editors. The finalists and shortlisted artists will each receive a virtual portfolio review session with an Aperture editor, who will provide thoughtful and constructive feedback on their work.

The twenty finalists are:

Hannah Altman, Sasha Arutyunova, Kerr Cirilo, Rose Marie Cromwell, Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo, Natalie Ivis, Hassan Kurbanbaev, Camille Farrah Lenain, Drew Leventhal, Morgan Levy, Jesse Ly, Kavi Pujara, Guarionex Rodriguez, Hyunmin Ryu, Agnieszka Sosnowska, Mika Sperling, Kai Wasikowski, Jaclyn Wright, Leafy Yeh, Rana Young 

Samantha Box, One Kind of Story, 2020, from the series Caribbean DreamsBrian Lau, House in Flurry, 2020, from the series We’re Just Here For the Bad GuysAkshay Mahajan, from the series To die is to turn in goldVân-Nhi Nguyễn, Untitled (Girl with Pearls), 2022, from the series As You Grow OlderZiyu Wang, Lads, 2022, from the series Go Get ‘Em Boy