A Face-commissioned photo could be going into space!

The annual Portrait of Humanity award has shortlisted Vivek Vadoliya’s image of 16-year-old Ebony Horse Club rider Maxim to be exhibited 111,000ft above Earth.

Launched in 2018, Portrait of Humanity, a competition backed by the British Journal of Photography and Magnum Photos, invites image-makers from 36 countries to submit an image that captures individuality, community and unity”. The winners of this collaborative photography exhibition” will be exhibited on digital screens in galleries around the world – including one 111,000ft above Earth via high-altitude balloon operators, Sent Into Space.

On this year’s shortlist is 31-year-old London-based photographer and director Vivek Vadoliya and his image taken for a photoseries for The Face on Brixton’s Ebony Horse Club, an inner-city stable that gives a leg-up to disadvantaged kids.

It was one of those photographs that you take where everything just stands still and that moment felt very deep,” says Vadoliya of the portrait of 16-year-old rider, Maxim. He represents a cross-section of London, and his story is quite interesting.”

Maxim joined the club five-and-a-half years ago with no prior experience around horses and has since gone on to become an obsessive equestrian. I wanted a dog but my mum didn’t like dogs and my dad’s allergic,” he told us at the end of last year. My mum found this place and was like: Oh, you can do horse riding instead’.” The hobby could turn into a career – Maxim wants to gallop on to study animal management at university.

Vivek Vadoliya’s portrait of Maxim can be bought at por​traitofhu​man​i​ty​.co. Enjoy some other photographs from Ebony Horse Club below.

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