Great evening in Melbourne on Wednesday … “The Wilfred and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize” 2016 celebration night. Didn’t know what to expect at the ‘Bowness’ … never made it to the ‘Finalist’ stage before to find out. However, the inclusion of my image ‘Beef Barons’ in the shortlist this year gave me a reason to travel to the Monash Gallery of Art and experience one of Australia’s highest profile photography prizes.
The space given over to the ‘Bowness’ prize was cavernous. The wall space for displaying the Finalists works … some of them massive pieces … was immense. (I considered beforehand that my photograph was a reasonably large piece … but it was totally dwarfed by many others works. Note to self … remember if ever there is a ‘next time’).
This years prize judging panel was headed by legendary Australian film director, producer and screenwriter Fred Schepisi AO (a bit of a buzz to have your work selected by such an eminent ‘pictorialist’) ably assisted by photographer John Gollings and MGA Director Kallie Blauhorn.
The twenty five grand prize went to the largest work in the show … a striking landscape by Valerie Sparkes entitled “Prospero’s Island – North East 2016”. It could so easily have been any number of the fantastic shortlisted works displayed around the walls.
This years ‘Bowness Prize’ exhibition catalogue took a novel creative turn in the form of a box of ‘postcards’ of each of the Finalists work. Clever …
Below is the catalogue ‘postcard’ of my work ‘Beef Barons’ sitting (centre) amongst many of the other Finalists … and an image of ‘Beef Barons’ attracting a little attention on the exhibition wall.
Images © Brian Cassey and the individual photographers.
