2022 Bowness Photography Prize winner announced
An image by Melbourne artist Amos Gebhardt, Wallaby, has taken out top honours in the 17th annual William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize winning them the $30,000 first prize. Their work was selected from a total of 1,334 entries, comprising 54 shortlisted images. The judges, acclaimed artist Rosemary Laing, Director of Agency and Senior Curator, Museums and Collections at University of Melbourne, Hannah Presley, and MGA Director Anouska Phizacklea, also chose three Colour Factory Honourable Mentions from the shortlist. Gebhardt’s work will be acquired into MGA’s nationally significant collection of Australian photographs.
The William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize is an annual survey of contemporary photographic practice in Australia and offers one of the biggest photographic prizes in the country.
No stranger to the awards, works by Gebhardt have been selected four times in the last five years as a finalist for the Bowness Photography Prize. For their winning work, Gebhardt integrated x-ray and satellite imaging to explore themes of trauma and sentience.
Colour Factory Honourable Mentions were awarded to Petrina Hicks for her exploration of motherhood in Hercules (2021); Danie Mellor for the large-scale work that incorporates archival and recent infra-red imagery to addresses the rich cultural traditions connected with Country and the history of photographic images that helped to shape the development of Australian colonial and settler identity in The far country (2022); and Sonia Payes for her work, Exoplanet 1 (2022).
What the judges thought
‘Amos Gebhardt’s Wallaby sits at the boundaries of photography and taps into its inner core – refractions of light. It is an incredibly complex and poetic work. In one image the artist focuses on the untimely death of an individual creature and yet locates its significance within the cosmos. It asks us to consider life and death and the nature of sentient beings. We are delighted to welcome Gebhardt’s practice and their work ‘Wallaby’ into MGA’s Collection’ – Anouska Phizacklea, MGA Director.
‘Seeing all of the participants work together in the flesh is a special opportunity. It's been a tad onerous to formally single out a few, when they are alongside substantially numerous outstanding practices. Thank you and congratulations to all participants, and on this occasion, especially Amos, Petrina, Danie and Sonia.’ – Rosemary Laing, artist.
‘It has been a wonderful experience working with Rosemary and the MGA team and an enjoyable process discussing each entry, to curate a thoughtful selection of works that celebrate photography. Congratulations to everyone involved, keep creating and exploring your craft.’ – Hannah Presley, Director of Agency and Senior Curator, Museums and Collections at University of Melbourne.
About the artist
Amos Gebhardt (1976– ) attained a Masters in Direction at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in 2006 and has since developed an artistic practice that revolves around large-scale moving image installations and photography, incorporating collaborations with performers, choreographers and sound artists. Exploring intersections between culture, nature, resistance and entanglement, Gebhardt narrates both human and beyond-human worlds. Gebhardt has exhibited widely, including at the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art and M+ Museum for Visual Culture in Hong Kong, and has been recognised through multiple awards, grants and residencies, such as the National Photography Prize, and the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award.
Shortlisted finalists
Michele Aboud, Kay Abude, Jilamara Arts, Narelle Autio, Jack Ball, Ramak Bamzar,, Arini Byng, Danica Chappell, Miriam Charlie, Jess Coldrey, Michael Cook, Michael Corridore, Sarah Cusack, Rebecca Dagnall, J Davies, Tamara Dean, Damian Dillon, Marian Drew, Rozalind Drummond, Sophie Dumaresq, Stephen Dupont, Odette England, Robert Fielding, Andrea Francolini, Amos Gebhardt, Mike Gillam, Ponch Hawkes, Petrina Hicks, Samantha Jade, Ayman Kaake, Shea Kirk, Janet Laurence, Honey Long and Prue Stent, Janelle Low, David Manley, Jesse Marlow, Janine McGuinness, Danie Mellor, Phuong Ngo, Selina Ou, Sanja Pahoki, Sonia Payes, Patrick Pound, Ruiqi Qiu, Kiron Robinson, Angus Scott, Cecilia Sordi Campos, David Stephenson, Margot Stewart, Cyrus Tang, The Huxleys, Lyndal Walker, Hilary Wardhaugh, and Lydia Wegner.
Pigment ink-jet print, 76 x 106 cm.
Head to the Bowness website to check out the finalists in their online gallery.
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