Portrait of local couple features in exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

Zug pianist Veronica Hvalic and her partner, architect Joseph Egloff from Ägeri, feature in a photograph entered for the 2014 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, entries for which are currently on show at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London.
 
The Zug couple happened to be in Barcelona when they were spotted by photographer Chloé Meunier (28), who is fast becoming a renowned photographer having won the "Coup de cour" Bourse du Talent Reportage Award in Cannes in 2009.
 
She was struck by the great love and connectivity the two exuded and asked if she could take a photograph of them and was particularly keen the tattoo on Egloff's arm should feature.
 
The portrait as shown (second photograph) was actually taken in the photographer's flat and, shortly after the Zug couple returned home, they received the picture by e-mail and subsequently gave their permission for it to be entered for the competition in London, to which 4,000 other entries were sent. All of these were then very carefully scrutinised by the jury, made up of Sandy Nairne, director of the NPG, Robin Muir, the editor of Vogue, Phillip Protger, the chief photographer at the NPG, Niri Shan, the head of the media and entertainment of the Taylor Wessing law company, and German photographer Bettina von Zwehl .Among the 450 guests at the vernissage of the exhibition were the 60 photographers who took the 4,000 works which made it through to the final round. The first prize actually went to David Titlow, an advertising and fashion photographer from the UK, with the second prize awarded to Jessica Fulford-Dobson, also of the UK, whose works have featured in Vogue and the Telegraph Magazine.
 
Anyone interested in seeing the photographs at the NPG can do so until Sunday 22 February 2015. Alternatively they can see them on www.npg.org.uk