Afshar travelled to Townsville with artist Vernon Ah Kee. There they spoke to community members, youth justice workers and families about the realities of the system.

“Australia’s one of the countries that has the lowest age of criminal responsibility and has been continuously criticised by the United Nations for it,” Afshar says. “We have made children the subject of political campaigns – adult crime, adult time and so on – gives politicians a chance for getting more popularity. What happened to us as a society that punishing children has become something popular?”

Working with children who had been in detention has had a powerful effect on Afshar.

“You can see how they respond to love and respect immediately. You show them care, love, and if they trust you, you see a side of them that is in total contrast with what society wants to convince you of. And that’s what they need. They need respect, love, care, safety, and we are providing them with absolute opposite of that.”

Change the Record CEO Jade Lane, who spoke at the Canberra launch of this year’s prize, called Afshar’s images “defiantly beautiful”.

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“These young people have chosen how they would like to be seen or not seen,” she says. “In doing so, they’ve taken back the power. They’ve framed themselves in their own terms, outside racist legislation and outside of prison walls free to thrive where children belong.”

Lane hopes the moment will kickstart a push for national reform.

“Some jurisdictions, like in Canberra … have raised the age to 14. But we need that nationally,” she says. “It’s a no-brainer — it would significantly reduce over-incarceration and break the pipeline that our people have, basically from child into prisons and illness.

“Prime Minister [Anthony] Albanese must take action to uphold the minimum standards of childhood rights, and hold states and territories to account by implementing the UN recommendations in full, sanctioning governments who fail to protect our children and tying federal funding to compliance with human rights.”

‘I have always put so much trust in the power of art to change the way we see things.’

Hoda Afshar

Afshar also hopes the attention being focused on her winning portrait might be a catalyst for change.

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“I have always put so much trust in the power of art to change the way we see things,” she says. “And that’s what I’ve always aimed for, to be able to show a different reality, to make people to see things differently. In this particular image, I’m very curious to see how the public would respond to this because I know, and I knew when I submitted it, that this could be controversial. How we read this image is a mirror that reflects our own image.”

The prime minister’s office has been contacted for comment.

The National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition of the winner and finalists runs until October 12 at the National Portrait Gallery. 

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