The £3,000 second prize was awarded to Dutch photographer Hendrik Kerstens for Bag, a portrait of his daughter, Paula, with a bag on her head. It’s an ordinary plastic bag, a supermarket giveaway, yet it mimics the caps of the girls portrayed in those Vermeer portraits of 17th Century Holland.

Kerstens is a self-taught photographer who has made his daughter his principal subject, always depicting her as being rather austere. She must love her father very much. Third prize of £2,000 went to Catherine Balet, a French photographer, for an image called Ines connected with Amina. It is from a series of photographs called Connected which explores themes of intimacy, technology and globalisation.

This photograph will strike a chord with anybody who has children or teenagers in the house. The girls portrayed are snuggled up close but they are each wired to their own world, courtesy of the technology which now holds sway in many homes.

They are connected but probably not to each other. The computer screen commands their rapt attention.

The fourth prize of £1,000 went to Tom Stoddart for his black and white portrait of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Tom was born in Morpeth, brought up on the Northumberland coast and has made a reputation for himself as one of the world’s great documentary photographers. He began his career working for newspapers in Northumberland.

As a photojournalist he has witnessed the war in Lebanon, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the election of President Nelson Mandela in South Africa, the siege of Sarajevo and the wars in Iraq.

The Murdoch portrait, which is entitled Murdoch Reflects, was commissioned by Time Magazine. It shows the craggy-featured multimillionaire in contemplative mood, the folds and wrinkles of his face contrasting with the angular lines of the office in which he is portrayed. The mark of a good photographer is to capture the sitter in an unguarded moment, thereby revealing something of his or her true nature.

This isn’t always easy, especially when the sitter is all too aware of the photographer’s presence.

Stoddart had been sent to photograph Murdoch at his office in Wapping, London, to illustrate a story about his $5bn acquisition of Dow Jones & Company.

The £2,500 Godfrey Argent Award for the best black and white portrait went to Vanessa Winship for Sweet Nothings, a portrait of two little girls taken in Turkey, where she lived for a few years.

* The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition can be seen at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, until June 21.