Group Exhibition
Museum of Australian Photography, Wheelers Hill
September 21–November 12, 2023
The Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh) is thrilled to announce the selected finalists for the 2023 William & Winifred Bowness Photography Prize. The judging panel considered close to 650 entries, selecting 66 to comprise the final field. The pool of finalists demonstrates the expansive and captivating range of creative photographic work being made in Australia today. The past decade has seen the Bowness Photography Prize emerge as an important annual survey of contemporary photographic practice in Australia and one of the most respected prizes in the country.
The 2023 exhibition comprises artwork from each of the 66 finalists: Grace Allen, Ashe, Robert Ashton, Alison Bennett, Madeline Bishop, Tom Blachford, Jane E Brown, Jane Burton, Anna Carey, Patricia Casey, Danica Chappell, Renato Colangelo, Michael Corridore, Zo Damage, Rory Daniel, Steve Danzig, Gerwyn Davies, Mikayla De Pasquale, Tamara Dean, Yask Desai, D-Mo, Rozalind Drummond, Stephen Dupont, Rhy Dyball, Robert Fielding, Murray Fredericks, Genevieve Ginty, Geoffrey Goddard, Tom Goldner, Rebecca Griffiths, Sammy Hawker, Ponch Hawkes, Shelley Horan, Nicholas Hubicki, The Huxleys, Minami Ivory, Inez Joakim, Pia Johnson, Ayman Kaake, Mark Kimber, Shea Kirk, Kelvin Lau, Janet Laurence, Putuparri Tom Lawford and Tobias Titz, Dylan Le'mon, Paula Mahoney, Jesse Marlow, Charles McKean, Danie Mellor, Kent Morris, Daniel Noone, Sonia Payes, Drew Pettifer, Izabela Pluta, Patrick Pound, Clare Rae, Yhonnie Scarce, Cassandra Scott-Finn, Jon Setter, Scotty So, Cyrus Tang, Hiromi Tango, Craig Tuffin, James Tylor, Justine Varga, Anne Zahalka.
Zo Damage, “Trust,” Bowness Photography Prize, 2023, Smith and Singer People’s Choice Award
MAPh and the MAPh Foundation are delighted to announce the recipient of the Smith & Singer People’s Choice Award, chosen from the 66 finalists in the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize exhibition for 2023. Visitors to the exhibition voted ‘Trust’ by Zo Damage as their favourite artwork, which received a significant 19% of the vote. Provoking curiosity and wonder, ‘Trust’ – at 15 metres long – brings photography off the wall, undulating into the exhibition space. The Smith & Singer People’s Choice Award winner receives $5000; three voters from the pool of participants will be selected at random to receive a Thames & Hudson (Australia) art-book stack.
Artist Zo Damage describes her work in the following statement:
“‘Trust’ questions and explores how analogue photography can be used to cultivate random innovative interactions to produce novel outcomes that visually iterate aesthetic responses to lived experience. The title further denotes the willingness to let go and trust in my creative process presence and intent echoed in the phenomenological interplays between artist, materials and methods – unfolding in real time – akin to the physical and psychological responses lived experience can induce.”
Source: MAPh “Media Release, Smith & Singer People’s Choice Award, William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize 2023.” View Media Release here (PDF).
Zo Damage installing "TRUST" (2022) for the Bowness Photography Prize Finalist Exhibition at MAPh, 2023. Photo courtesy MAPh, 2023
Zo Damage installing "TRUST" (2022) for the Bowness Photography Prize Finalist Exhibition at MAPh, 2023. Photo courtesy MAPh, 2023
Zo Damage, 2022, “Trust,” gelatin silver print (unique state) 15M x 1.1M. Photo courtesy of the artist