The Monash Gallery of Art, one of Australia's leading public galleries, has announced the 2016 finalists of the highly sought after photography award, The Bowness Photography Prize. Established to encourage excellence in the art and education of photography, The Bowness Prize judges the work of amateur, emerging and professional photographers across Australia.
This year marks the largest number of PSC students to be selected as finalists for this prestigious national prize.
Amongst our undergraduates we have a spectacular first year student Darren Tan, who has been shortlisted. Hailing from Singapore, Darren is one of our remarkable international students who has shown progress and created award-worthy work. Along with him another Bachelor of Photography student Joanne Cripps (currently in her 3rd year at PSC) was chosen. A photograph from her series 'When you took me away... because you knew best' was submitted to the prize, enabling her to get recognition for her photojournalism work - a genre she is currently majoring in.
Image by Darren Tan
Image by Joanne Cripps
We also have two impressive students from the Advanced Diploma cohort who have been selected. Tammy Boyce and Margaret Lim are both studying in the art major and have produced unique, thought provoking work which has caught the attention of the MGA foundation and the Bowness Prize selection panel.
Image by Tim Allen
Image by Elaine Batton
The PSC community is additionally proud of the graduates who have also been chosen as finalists. Tim Allen (who studied in the Advanced Diploma, commercial major) and Elaine Batton (winner of the 2005 Fuji industry award for excellence in a commercial folio) clearly exhibit their dedication to the art as photographers who have applied their contemporary skills to their photographic endeavours.
Image by Michael Warnock
Image by Mia McDonald
Our commitment to learning as well as practice in the field of photography us best exemplified when members of our teaching staff continuously develop their own photography projects and contribute to awards in the art industry. We are thrilled about the news of Michael Warnock and Mia McDonald being selected for the Bowness Prize, and wish them the best of luck with the final judging round, from which winners will be announced on 7 September.
We are also happy about the announcement of Melbourne photographers Matt Portch, Christopher Koller and Peter Hyatt being selected as finalists. They have played an important role as key clients for our Master Printer Peter Hatzipavlis at the PrintShop @ PSC, who has printed their stunning work recently.
This year the judging panel comprises of Fred Schepisi (filmmaker), John Gollings (photographer) and Kallie Blauhorn (director of MGA). We are excited about the outcomes of their final decision and look forward to the Bowness Photography Prize exhibition that will run from 1 September to 16 October. We hope to see you all there and welcome to learn more about our award winning institution here.