Overview
- Hoda Afshar secured her second National Photographic Portrait Prize in August 2025 with Untitled #01 from her 2024 Code Black/Riot series, earning a $50,000 award.
- The winning image shows three First Nations girls using hand gestures to conceal their identities and assert agency under laws that allow detention of children as young as 10.
- Untitled #01 is exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra through October 12, providing a high-profile platform for the series’ advocacy message.
- Change the Record CEO Jade Lane has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to implement United Nations recommendations and mandate a national rise in the minimum age of criminal responsibility.
- Australia’s current minimum age of criminal responsibility—one of the lowest globally—has faced repeated UN criticism, with jurisdictions like the ACT already moving to raise it to 14.