Winner of 2023 Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize announced

5 July 2023
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Melbourne photographer and multi-disciplinary artist Chris Bowes has won the $25,000 Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize for 2023.

A close up of part of Sun Kissed #1, #2, #3, #4, 2023 by Chris Bowes.
A close up of part of Sun Kissed #1, #2, #3, #4, 2023 by Chris Bowes.

He describes his winning series Sun Kissed #1, #2, #3, #4 as a series of experimental photographs created using a hand-made camera that, rather than capturing a representational image, instead captures the colour of light.

"They are presented in pairs, each pair containing an imprint of the light at sunrise and sunset over the course of several days. As such, the work's aim is to reduce landscape photography to its most basic form, imbuing photographic film with an impression of the sun rather than capturing it washing over the environment."

Run by the Australian Photographic Society (APS), The Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize is an acquisitive prize that seeks to find Australia's best conceptual photographs. Entries in the Award must be a still work that has been substantially produced by photographic means, and it is open to analogue and digital photography, collage and mixed media. 

In addition to taking home the $25k prize money, Bowes' series will be acquired and join the previous MCPP winners in the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre's (MRAC) permanent collection of post-war paintings, ceramic and photography.

The adjudicators of the competition, Victoria Cooper, Eloise Maree, Doug Spowart, and Len Metcalf, also decided that four other finalist works should be Highly Commended. They were:

The Colony Reclaims the Land by Melanie Cobham

‘The Colony Reclaims the Land’ by Melanie Cobham. This image is a series of 35mm negatives depicting the Australian landscape, intervened by a colony of termites. The negatives were fed into a termite mound and crossed over by the colony as it travelled assiduously across the nest. The work plays with the dialogue of living on colonised land by inviting a native colony to reclaim its own image. 35mm negative intervened by a colony of termites.
‘The Colony Reclaims the Land’ by Melanie Cobham. This image is a series of 35mm negatives depicting the Australian landscape, intervened by a colony of termites. The negatives were fed into a termite mound and crossed over by the colony as it travelled assiduously across the nest. The work plays with the dialogue of living on colonised land by inviting a native colony to reclaim its own image. 35mm negative intervened by a colony of termites.

A flying saucer over Clyde Mountain, shows Declan, dead at two hours old, how to make a new body out of light, 2023 by Judith Nangala Crispin

A flying saucer over Clyde Mountain, shows Declan, dead at two hours old, how to make a new body out of light by Judith Nangala Crispin. This is part of a series of afterlife portraits of birds and animals, ascending between earth and outer space. I place cadavers on emulsion, creating images with Lumachrome glass printing sun printing, clich-verre and chemigram. Decomposition chemistry creates colour and detail. Each print is exposed 30-50 hours in natural light. This work draws on my experience of tracing my family’s Aboriginal ancestry. I am trying to honour the lives of animal and birds with whom we share this planet. Lumachrome glass print, chemigram, drawing. Deceased newborn microbat, dried take-away baby octopus, salt, wax, crayon, paint, potassium ferricyanide, silver nitrate, household chemicals. Exposed 16 hours in a metal bucket, in rainlight.
A flying saucer over Clyde Mountain, shows Declan, dead at two hours old, how to make a new body out of light by Judith Nangala Crispin. This is part of a series of afterlife portraits of birds and animals, ascending between earth and outer space. I place cadavers on emulsion, creating images with Lumachrome glass printing sun printing, clich-verre and chemigram. Decomposition chemistry creates colour and detail. Each print is exposed 30-50 hours in natural light. This work draws on my experience of tracing my family’s Aboriginal ancestry. I am trying to honour the lives of animal and birds with whom we share this planet. Lumachrome glass print, chemigram, drawing. Deceased newborn microbat, dried take-away baby octopus, salt, wax, crayon, paint, potassium ferricyanide, silver nitrate, household chemicals. Exposed 16 hours in a metal bucket, in rainlight.

I Knew at the Time, 2023 by Jess Leonard, and I don't always understand/selectively mute, 2022 by Arrayah Loynd.

I don't always understand/selectively mute (diptych) by Arrayah Loyndi. I don't feel like I belong in my body, it feels awkward and uncomfortable like an ill fitting suit. I live in a constant state of confusion...of others, of myself. I am not who they say I am, I am not who you think I am. I am no one and nothing, I am everyone and everything, So come and find me, but only in the small moments when I want to be found. I make no promise that I will be there. (neurodivergence/trauma). Archival pigment printing on canson rag.
I don't always understand/selectively mute (diptych) by Arrayah Loyndi. I don't feel like I belong in my body, it feels awkward and uncomfortable like an ill fitting suit. I live in a constant state of confusion...of others, of myself. I am not who they say I am, I am not who you think I am. I am no one and nothing, I am everyone and everything, So come and find me, but only in the small moments when I want to be found. I make no promise that I will be there. (neurodivergence/trauma). Archival pigment printing on Canson rag.

All the finalists are showing until August 26 at the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre. You can see them all here. 

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