Portrait of Britain 2025
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Portrait of Britain 2025: BSU Graduate Ellie Applegate named on prestigious shortlist
Monday, 24 November, 2025Bath Spa University was proud to learn that recent Photography graduate – and new Emerge resident – Ellie Applegate has been shortlisted for the Portrait of Britain award 2025.
Billed as the UK’s biggest annual photography exhibition, the Portrait of Britain award is a celebration of identity, diversity and culture and is judged by some of the most prestigious names in the photography world.
Now, BSU graduate Ellie Applegate can add her name to the list of photographers shortlisted for the award, with her striking image set to be published amongst 200 others in this year’s print edition.
Speaking about the achievement, Ellie said:
“I’m very excited. When you're submitting to something that's as large as this, you think it will take years to get noticed. I was actually on holiday when I got the e-mail and I immediately called my mum. It’s really amazing, I didn’t expect it at all.”
Ellie’s bold image reflects the power of the relationship that exists between her and the person she first spoke to about the news, her mum.
Showcasing the empowering lessons passed down from her mum, Ellie’s image is a celebration of love and observation, paying tribute to her mum’s ability to protect and reflecting the primal nature of motherhood.
In Ellie’s own words:
“I wanted the picture to feel like she’s protecting me, with us both thinking about where we step and tread. The camouflage represents that caution and worry, but it’s done in a playful way.
“I like to be positive in the work I make; I don’t want everything to be doom and gloom. This shortlisting feels so reassuring for me and my practise and the pictures that I make. It’s ok for my pictures to not always be serious in their visuals, it can have serious context. Photography doesn’t have to be rigid, it can be fun and like performance and play. That’s really important to the way that I work and I feel very lucky that people read it in the way I intended for it to be read.”
That playful nature of Ellie’s imagery adequately reflects a backstory to the image that saw Ellie and her mum hiding in the Wiltshire landscape, fitted in the camouflage suits seen in the final work.
After some farmers questioned their whereabouts, Ellie improvised and instead shot the final photograph in her back garden, eventually capturing the shot that will be published in the dedicated Portrait of Britain book, which is available to pre-order soon.
Ellie describes her work as a tribute to her mum, who she credits as her inspiration. Indeed, many of Ellie’s final showcase images, displayed at the 2025 Undergraduate Degree Show, were an homage to her mum.
Speaking about the work and her relationship with her mum, Ellie said:
“It very much feels like our work, we’re in it together. The work mirrors our relationship in many ways, we’re very close and she’s a huge part of what I do. She’s such an important character in everything I do and I don’t know where I’d be without her.”
The announcement of Ellie’s shortlisting kickstarted a bumper month, with Ellie also returning to Bath Spa University to begin her Emerge residency.
Emerge launched in the Autumn of 2020 and offers a unique multidisciplinary creative practice studio for Bath Spa University alumni who have graduated within the last two years.
Speaking about her start to life at Emerge, Ellie said:
“I’m just excited about making new work and continuing to promote myself. I’m looking forward to immersing myself in the research as well and dig deep into the things that motivate me as a creative, and as a photographer.”
Ellie will discover if her image has been selected as a finalist at the start of 2026, but her shortlisting, just months after graduating, represents a mammoth achievement in itself.
Speaking about Ellie’s achievement, Stephen Vaughan, Programme Lead for BA Photography at Bath Spa University said:
“We're delighted that Ellie Applegate's brilliant work has been shortlisted for the Portrait of Britain Award. This recognition of her outstanding photographic practice is very much deserved and continues to build on the awards she received at the conclusion of her degree studies earlier this year – including the Vice Chancellor's Award and the Finlay Mills Memorial Prize.
“Ellie is also one of eight photographers shortlisted for the South West Graduate Photography Prize, and her work will be exhibited at FOTONOW at the end of November. As well as demonstrating her exceptional talent as an artist, these awards also reflect the enormous contribution she made as a student to our photography community at Bath Spa University.”
You can view Ellie’s work and stay updated with her journey on Instagram.