APS' Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize 2021: winners announced

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The Australian Photographic Society (APS) has announced Canberra-based photographer Ian Skinner as the winner of the 2021 Mullins Contemporary Photographic Prize (MACPP) for his work ‘Ashscapes’. 

His work was selected as the winning entry by this year's judging panel of photographic artists, including Jacqui Dean, Judith Nangala Crispin and Julie Williams.

© Ian Skinner
© Ian Skinner

As winner, Skinner takes home a $10,000 cash prize and his work will become part of the Muswellbrook Regional Art Centre’s permanent collection of post-war contemporary paintings, ceramics and photography.

Skinner is a member of the APS and its Contemporary Group. He was also a finalist in the 2020 edition of the annual competition. 

His concept statement for Ashscape reads:

“The catastrophic fires in Southeastern Australia in 2019-2020 were shortly followed by torrential rain. The rivers and creeks disgorged vast quantities of debris from the conflagration into the ocean so that the waves turned grey with ash, and convulsed with charred remnants."

"Where the gentler waves reached their zenith on the beaches, small flecks of carbonised vegetation rested in ephemeral patterns suggesting the hills, ridges and valleys of their living selves.”

© Ian Terry
© Ian Terry

Ian Terry of Hobart, Tasmania has received the Emergent Designs Award (a $500 voucher) for his work titled ‘Night on the Tier’. Like Skinner, he is a member of the APS and its Contemporary Group, and he was also a finalist in the 2020 competition as well. 

Terry’s concept statement for ‘Night on the Tier’ reads: This image is part of an ongoing project responding to the journeys of George Augustus Robinson who, assisted by palawa (Indigenous Tasmanian) guides, walked through Van Diemen’s Land in the 1830s to persuade palawa still on Country to give up their resistance to the European invasion of their island.”

“In following Robinson with his journal in hand I am seeking to connect the historical with the contemporary, to make sense of my existence in this island of dreams which was stolen violently from its first people. This fractured landscape is where Robinson spent his first night on one conciliation expedition.”

© Anne Pappalardo
© Anne Pappalardo

Anne Pappalardo of Brisbane, Queensland has won the Momento Pro Award (a $250 voucher) for her work ‘A New Place to Stay’.

Her concept statement reads: “For 50 years, mum and dad had Christmas holidays at the Tallebudgera Caravan Park on the Gold Coast, Queensland. This place was where our most cherished family memories were made."

"Age meant they reluctantly but bravely sold their vintage caravan and booked a spectacular high-rise beachfront apartment nearby at Burleigh, with high hopes for this journey toward a new tradition.” 

“It rained torrentially and constantly for their two-week stay, and I took these images to reflect the gloom of our spirits and my parents’ remorse at the disappointing beginning to this ‘fabulous’ new holiday ritual.”

All finalists who were not APS members prior to entering the competition have been granted free memberships to the APS for 12 months. Additionally, every finalist will also receive a bound photobook containing all the winning and finalist images, sponsored by Momento Pro and the MPCC. 

The winning works and those of all the other finalists, together with their associated Concept Statements, can be found here

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