Winner of $30,000 Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize announced

The Australian Photographic Society (APS) and the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre (MRAC) have announced Merilyn Fairskye's Focus Infinity IV (4.41am, 09 May 2024, Maralinga village), 2024, as the winner of the 2024 Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize.

Fairskye wins a $30,000 cash prize, and her artwork has also been acquired by the MRAC’s permanent collection of post-war contemporary paintings, ceramic and photography.

According to Faiskye, Focus Infinity IV is part of her ongoing Long Life Project, which looks at Australia and its looming nuclear future.

"On a recent visit to Maralinga, site of British nuclear tests in the 50s and 60s, I wanted to see what would be revealed if I photographed in complete darkness," she says.

"My settings were f/1.4, 00:30 exposure, ISO 1600, focus ∞. Mid-exposure, I moved my camera from sky to earth.”

Run by the Australian Photographic Society, 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. 

The exhibition of the winning work, along with the 34 other finalists, will continue at MRAC until 12 October 2024.