Photography Review | Brian Rope
Mullins Conceptual
Photography Prize 2022 | Various artists
Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre | 9 July – 27
August 2022
For the third year in succession, a Canberran has won the MCPP. After Judy Parker won in 2020 and Ian Skinner in 2021, this year the first prize of $15,000 went to Sammy Hawker.
In his magazine Inside Imaging here, Will Shipton said “There must be something in the water around Canberra that feeds the conceptual photographic mind, as three of the four winners are from the relatively small capital city” and “The fourth MCPP is organised by the Australian Photographic Society (APS), an umbrella organisation for Australian camera clubs. The grand prize won by Hawker is an impressive $15,000 cash, making the MCPP a major Australian photo contest.”
I’ve previously reviewed two of Hawker’s recent exhibitions here and here. She works predominantly with film, often in close association with traditional custodians, and challenges the notion that a photograph constitutes the moment a camera shutter is released.
 |
Sammy Hawker - Mount Gulaga, 2021 |
Hawker’s
concept statement reads “This work was captured on 4x5 film looking out towards
Mount Gulaga from the Wallaga Lake headland. I processed the negative with
ocean water collected from site. When processing film with salt water the
corrosive properties lifts the silver emulsion and the representational image
is rendered vague. However an essence of the site is introduced to the frame as
the vibrant matter paints its way onto the negative. A ghost of Gulaga looms
behind the abstraction ~ felt rather than seen.”
Other Canberran finalists this year were Lyndall Gerlach, with two of her works, and Susan Henderson. Gerlach says, “For me, a good photographic image must always engage the viewer either emotionally or intellectually.” You can read more about Gerlach in another of my pieces here.
Lyndall Gerlach - Night City-ness #1, 2021
Lyndall Gerlach - Contemporary Lifestyle, 2021
This is Henderson’s first time as a finalist. Henderson believes photography is mostly about capturing the real and the now. She is “fascinated by the conjuncture of the two, the transient opportunity to record the light rather than the subject, to take advantage of nature and the built environment to photograph.”
 |
Susan Henderson - Rain 2, 2021 |
At
the opening, adjudicator Bill Bachman said “we were instinctively looking for
images with a strong or original concept and superior execution, that in some
way challenged our notions of normal. Happily, there were ideas,
techniques and processes galore.”
Julie Williams had two works selected as finalists. Of them, Moth was given one of three HMs. The first word to enter my thoughts when I saw it was “bushranger”. Then I learned it is a reinterpretation of the life of the Lady Bushranger Jessie Hickman (1890-1936).
Julie Williams - Moth, 2022
The other HMs were works by Claire Conroy and Ben Blick-Hodge.
Claire Conroy - 35mm slide recovered in Lismore floods 2022
Ben Blick-Hodge - Soup's up! 2022
At
the opening I met two first time finalists Sue Gordon and Michael Shirley, both
of whom were thrilled to have had their works selected. In his artist statement
relating to his work, Rain, Shirley speaks of rain coming to take you,
your life, your house, your possessions, your friends. The black and white artwork
shows numerous people under umbrellas, almost obliterated by rain which he has
deliberately exaggerated.
Michael Shirley - Rain, 2021
Gordon’s
work is a self-portrait titled What’s hidden in shadows. It is a
powerful bruised depiction of physical abuse once experienced, but no more
hidden or excused.
Sue Gordon - What's Hidden in Shadows, 2022
It
was also great to see the work by Vicky Cooper and Doug Spowart – a concertina
photo book – displayed on a shelf. This was the first year that anything other
than 2 dimensional prints could be entered, so it was excellent that this work
was a finalist.
Victoria Cooper & Doug Spowart - Desire Paths, 2022
All the finalists in the 2022 MCPP exhibition can be seen in a virtual gallery here.
This review is also available on the author's blog here.
