Ballarat International Foto Biennale award winners revealed
The winners have been revealed in two competitions run as part of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale – the Martin Kantor Portrait Prize and The Fineman New Photography Award.
Martin Kantor Portrait Prize
Mia Mala McDonald was named overall winner of the Martin Kantor Portrait Prize, receiving the $15,000 award for her portrait of AFLW footballer, Darcy Vescio. Of the winning image, the judges commented: “Surrounded by gold and glitter here is a relaxed young woman comfortable in her body, humble even, looking away from the viewer. Here is someone so accomplished she is happy to strike a new pose for a new way of thinking about women in high-profile sport.”
Renowned architecture photographer John Gollings took out the People's Choice with a self-portrait. “Never have I felt as alone as I did during Melbourne’s four month long pandemic lockdown. I had been in my studio for weeks testing cameras using myself as a model when inexplicably I was overcome with sadness for my father and felt tears rolling down my face. He died unexpectedly in hospital twenty-two years ago due to a medical error,” Gollings said. “His death made me the patriarch of the family and I felt the need to stay strong. I had never cried for him. In the privacy of my studio I finally let myself feel the sorrow and loss of my father but also realised that my selfish grief was small compared to the global devastation of the pandemic. Reflecting on these dark times my tears became tears for all.”
Judges
- Naomi Cass, Director Castlemaine Art Museum
- Max Delany, Artistic Director Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
- Bill Henson, Photographic Artist
- Fiona Sweet, Artistic Director, Ballarat International Foto Biennale
The Fineman New Photography Award
The $10,000 first prize for The Fineman New Photography Award went to Liss Fenwick for her series, Back Out. The judges commented: "Her work expands, with great vividness, the value-judgements of terrain, land use and function. Fenwick’s series 'Back Out' rewrites the conventions of natural beauty and barrenness, with a framing that is empathetic as it is uncompromising.
Strongly charged emotive images that look at the immediate surroundings beyond cliché images. A starkly beautiful, ineffable series which presents new readings on Australia rural area which is hardly known by the wider audience outside of the country… Fenwick’s images carry an uncanny sense that arises out of the stress points of the past and are manifest in beauty found in a hostile and bleak landscape.”
The People’s Choice was awarded to Aakriti Chandervanshi for her series, After Eden. Judges noted: It is a beautiful, fragile, and fantastic landscape work that depicts the real social problems faced by a developing region. The silence of the landscapes is loudly captured in these enigmatic images. There is tension in the softness and starkness of the imagery and natural environments.”
Judges
- Fayen d’Evie, Artist, Writer, Lecturer RMIT University
- Pippa Dickson, Director Asialink Arts
- Gwen Lee, Director Singapore International Photography Festival
- Eriko Noguchi, Independent Curator
- Miho Odaka, Independent Curator of Photography
- Jim Ramer, Director MFA Photography Parsons School of Design
- Shubigi Rao, Artist and Writer
- Bala Starr, Director La Trobe Art Institute
- Alexander Supartono, Curator and Lecturer Edinburgh Napier University
- Fiona Sweet, Artistic Director, Ballarat International Foto Biennale
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