Regional photographers vie for $25k Galah Prize

NORTHERN Rivers photographers have ten days left to enter the Galah Regional Photography Prize, with $25,000 and an exhibition at stake.

Organisers are encouraging regional photographers making any form of still photography – fine art, photojournalism, portraiture, landscape, documentary or collage – to enter the competition before it closes in 10 days.

The biennial prize was created in 2023 to encourage excellence in contemporary photography from regional Australia and to celebrate, support, and advance the practice of regional photographers.

The open winner will receive $25,000 and a photographic essay published in Galah’s print magazine.

The photographer voted winner of the People’s Choice award will receive $2,000.

The Good Weekend magazine will present the Award for Excellence in Photojournalism, with the winner receiving four one-hour Zoom mentoring sessions with GW photographers and editors.

All finalists will be featured at an eight-week exhibition at the New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM) from April to June, with all artists receiving a 70 per cent commission of the sale price.

The judging panel comprises Rachael Parsons, the director of NERAM; Katrina Strickland, editor of Good Weekend; Adam Ferguson, the winner of the 2023 Galah Prize; acclaimed portrait photographer Hugh Stewart; and Fiona Bateman, art editor of Galah.

The judges will select 40 finalists from the pool of digital entries, and winners will be chosen in person at the finalists’ exhibition.

Galah has raised an additional $21,695 through the Australian Cultural Fund to assist the finalists with printing, framing and freight costs for the exhibition.

Entries close at midnight on Monday, February 10 and finalists will be announced on February 28.