Photo prize winners praised

THE winners of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale’s major prizes have been announced.

On Saturday, the Martin Kantor Portrait Prize for a portrait of a living distinguished individual, and the Fineman New Photography Award for photographic artists working throughout the Asia-Pacific region were give out.

Mia Mala McDonald took out the $15,000 Martin Kantor Portrait Prize for her portrait of AFLW footballer Darcy Vescio.

Judges for the prize were artistic director and CEO of the Biennale, Fiona Sweet, and director of the Castlemaine Art Museum Naomi Cass,

They commended McDonald’s mixed use of “popular traditions of commercial portrait photography” and “a subtle and uncanny directorial mode, and framing which bestows character to the subject”.

“Surrounded by gold and glitter here is a relaxed young woman comfortable in her body, humble even, looking away from the viewer,” they said.

“Here is someone so accomplished she is happy to strike a new pose for a new way of thinking about women in high-profile sport.”

Australian visual artist Liss Fenwick won the $10,000 Fineman New Photography Award for her series of photographs taken in the Northern Territory, titled Back Out.

Judges included arts director of Asialink Pippa Dickson, director of La Trobe University’s art institute Bala Starr and Ms Sweet.

They said Fenwick’s work “expands, with great vividness, the value-judgements of terrain, land use and function.”

“Fenwick’s series Back Out rewrites the conventions of natural beauty and barrenness, with a framing that is empathetic as it is uncompromising… Strongly charged emotive images that look at the immediate surroundings beyond cliché images.

“A starkly beautiful, ineffable series which presents new readings on Australia rural area which is hardly known by the wider audience outside of the country.

“Fenwick’s images carry an uncanny sense that arises out of the stress points of the past and are manifest in beauty found in a hostile and bleak landscape.”

There are five weeks left to view the works at the Foto Biennale, which was extended until 9 January.