Visual Art Exhibition Review | Brian Rope
2025 Canberra Contemporary
Photographic Prize | Various Artists
Photo Access | 17 July to 9 August
2025
The Canberra Contemporary Photographic Prize is an annual exhibition and competition celebrating both emerging and established talents in photo media. Open to photographers worldwide, regardless of experience level, it showcases new perspectives in contemporary photography, offering a kaleidoscopic view of photographic art.
There are 40 finalist artworks in this third Prize and exhibition. The curator has done an excellent job, placing works appropriately to give the exhibition a suitably cohesive look. Many of the finalist artists are local, others from further afield – including international artists from Brazil and Vietnam.
The works are, of course, diverse in numerous ways. Each visitor will be drawn to different pieces and, possibly, be dismissive of others. Nevertheless, there certainly are some excellent pieces well worthy of having been selected and of being viewed by us all.
The Winning work, Window Warp I, 2025, is by Alex Walker. Her artist statement reveals it was hand printed and states that her “aim was to destabilise perception, leaving the eye searching for a point of clarity that never fully arrives. The image is no longer static - it is unstable, fragmented, always in flux.” The print is displayed in a bespoke angled mirror polished aluminium frame.
 |
| Alex Walker - Window Warp I, 2025 |
The Highly Commended award was given to Damian Dillon for his piece titled inside forest, yellow, black. His artist statement says it represents a false utopia, and states “shot using a plastic camera to emphasise failure and the aesthetics of a breakdown, the plastic lens subverts current photographic norms to depict a world where clarity is suspect, control is illusionary, and beauty resides in the imperfect.” It is printed on coloured Perspex.
 |
| Damian Dillon - inside forest, yellow, black |
A QR Code displayed on the gallery walls enables visitors to explore the artist statements and artwork details of all forty works. It also enables voting for a People’s Choice Award. This is most helpful. It is reproduced here for readers who are unable to visit the gallery.
Transmuted, 2025, a work by Fernanda Pedrosa spoke to me, not only because the image itself immediately draws attention, but also because the artist statement is a delightful piece of poetry which begins:
What isn’t said
can still be heard.
It echoes.
What has no sound
scream.
What goes unheard
silence.
It shifts.
 |
| Fernanda Pedrosa - Transmuted, 2025 |
Another work that appealed to me was Todd Johnson’s artwork 3 weeks, 2 days, 7 hours (Lake Burley Griffin), 2025. Read the artist statement to learn how he relinquished control of the photographic process to the landscape, in order to invite reflection on impermanence and on how place shapes perception, matter, and memory.
 |
| Todd Johnson - 3 weeks, 2 days, 7 hours (Lake Burley Griffin), 2025 |
I confess to being a little surprised by Raoul Slater’s work. I recall a time when he dedicated most of his life to the photography and study of Australian birds. But this piece is not a nature photograph of any type. It’s a diptych tintype portrait of his son, both images shot with an old Wollensak projector lens.
 |
| Raoul Slater - Sam, 2024 |
I could write about many other exhibits: Hilary Wardhaugh’s challenging work about the current Gaza situation, Sari Sutton’s “playful nod to inventors, visionaries and risk-takers”, Annabelle McEwen’s fascinating process, Lisa Stonham’s transparent print, and Andrea Bryant’s piece that made me smile even though she it is about her “struggle to cope within a world that is becoming increasingly uncertain and difficult to navigate.”
I’ll conclude by mentioning Craig Watson’s wonderful ten exposures piece Chaos Of The Carnival, 2024 shot on large-format (4”x5”) film. As he says the resulting image is “almost an assault on the visual senses. But the more you look into it, the more you see.” He’s absolutely right. The longer I peered into it, the more I saw.
 |
| Craig Watson - Chaos Of The Carnival, 2024 |
