July 4, 2023

The fifth 2023 Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize, organised by the Australian Photographic Society (APS), has announced Melbourne photographer, Chris Bowes, as winner.

Chris Bowes winning art works, Sun Kissed #1, #2, #3, #4, 2023. Photo: Chris Bowes.

Bowes’ entry, Sun Kissed #1, #2, #3, #4, 2023, is ‘positive film imprinted with sunlight’.

‘Sun Kissed is a series of experimental photographs created using a hand-made camera that, rather than capturing a representational image, instead captures the colour of light,’ Bowes wrote in his concept statement. ‘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.’

Art works by Chris Bowes

Bowes’ website bio describes himself as a ‘multidisciplinary artist who’s practice incorporates photography, video and installation’.

‘My work explores the material properties of analogue and digital image making, often finding failures within these systems and pushing them to the brink. I am also interested in the reduction of photography to its most basic properties – surface, light and duration – and regularly attempt to push the definition of photography as far as possible from its traditional Interpretation.’

Bowes wins $25K.

The adjudicators – Victoria Cooper, Doug Spowart, Eloise Maree, and Len Metcalf – also picked four works to be highly commended:

The Colony Reclaims the Land by Melanie Cobham

‘The Colony Reclaims the Land’ 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. Art work by Melanie Cobham.

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

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. Art work by Judith Nangala Crispin.

I Knew at the Time, 2023 by Jess Leonard

Photo: Jess Leonard.

Perhaps uncanny and slightly disorientating this work explores themes of women, the body and place, memory and mystery with only a fragment of the narrative presented before the viewer.
The story you walk away with is yours to believe. Digital Photograph on 200gsm Ilford Fine Art Smoot

I don’t always understand/selectively mute, 2022 by Arrayah Loynd

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. Art work by Arrayah Loynd.

The 2023 Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize has become a major success for the APS, with sponsorship from Ilford, MRAC, Malabar, Bengalla, MACH Energy and Australian Photography. The Prize culminates in a finalist exhibition, which is showing until August 26 at the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre in the NSW Upper Hunter Region. Click here to see all finalist images.