APS' Mullins Contemporary Photographic Prize winners announced

The Australian Photographic Society (APS) has announced photographer Judy Parker as the winner of the 2020 Mullins Contemporary Photographic Prize (MACPP) for her work ‘Dumpster Sketchbook: Waterside’.

Parker's concept statement for Dumpster Sketchbook: Waterside reads:

“Recently I took a series of photographs of the side panels of a large open container at a local recycling centre. The markings had a wonderfully strong graphic quality, red rust-lines on a silver-painted surface: a calligraphy of wear and tear.

When I processed my images, I was intrigued by the way sections of the random patterns suggested a series of semi-abstract coastal landscapes, each quite different. I modified three of these to reinforce the reference and combined them as a triptych. Our minds are not limited to the literal. They can equally re-identify and re-imagine.”

The MACPP is acquisitive; meaning Parker's image becoms the property of Melbourne's Magnet Galleries.

Entries in the Award must be a still work that has been substantially produced by photographic means, and it is open to analogue and digital photography, collage and mixed media. 

Louise Alexander of Halls Head, Western Australia received the Emergent Designs Award (a $1,000 voucher) for her work entitled ‘Beige Chair’.

Alexander's concept statement for Beige Chair reads: “Beige Chair is about not wanting to be seen. Times when you just want to hide. In a world where we all feel the need and the pressure to be visible and accountable there is little room to hide. This image was made in honour of the artist's father who loathed the colour beige. He believed people start to wear beige as they get older, as if the colour was running out of them.”

Anne O’Connor of Launceston, Tasmania received the Momento Pro Award (a $250 voucher) for her work entitled ‘The Price of Water’.

“Rainwater is free, but if it declines, rivers dry up & earth suffers. A cost far beyond water ensues, as hope dwindles, waiting for the life-giving gift of water. We all need it, this blood of the land, running through the veins of the entire planetary system.

It is priceless. The black spots on the patterned background are created by raindrops on sand. The hand stitching represents the blood of both humanity & the land, in their struggle for survival, as the planet dries up beneath them without rain, in this time of drought.”

Every finalist receives a Reg Satin 170 perfect bound book containing all the winning and finalist images, sponsored by Momento Pro.

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