Veteran Indigenous photographer Wayne Quilliam has won the $50,000 National Photographic Portrait Prize with an image of Aurukun man Eric Yunkaporta that he says captures “the essence of who the man is”.

“Eric is such an incredible man and he has a strong silence,” says Quilliam, who has photographed many of Yunkaporta’s extended family over the years. “English is his third language but he doesn’t need to say much to tell you a lot.

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“My role as a storyteller continues to evolve and this capture is akin to a trickle of water merging into a small stream then into the ocean.”

A self-taught photographer who grew up in Hobart, Quilliam has spent 35 years documenting Indigenous communities across the country. He is now adjunct professor of photography at RMIT University.

In their statement the judges of the prize, on show at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, said every aspect of the portrait was “exceptional”.

“The composition, the contrast, the richness of the colours in the ochres and feathers and also the sense of pride the subject is portraying – all of these layers and details carry such power in connecting the subject and his story with the audience,” they added.

Quilliam sees his work as a continuation of more than 60,000 years of Indigenous storytelling, just by different means.