Haunting triptych wins $30,000 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize
Melbourne Photographer Katrin Koenning has won the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize for 2019.
Koenning's work ‘Three’ from her series Lake Mountain (2018), is a subtle and quiet image of the bushfire-ravaged landscape of Lake Mountain a decade after Black Saturday in 2009.
Speaking about the prize, judging panel member Dr Christian Thompson AO described Koenning's work as poignant and timely.
"It fits into a larger conversation about the transience and fragility of the vulnerable nature of the Australian landscape," he said.
The Bowness Photography Prize is an important survey of contemporary photographic practice and one of the most prestigious prizes in the country, providing Australian artists with the opportunity to exhibit at one of Australia's leading public galleries.
Since 2017 the prize has been acquisitive, and, with its $30,000 prize, aims to provide a significant boost to an artist’s career. Koenning was a finalist in 2018 and 2014.
Speaking about her win, Katrin Koenning described it as the greatest public acknowledgement of her practice to date.
"It is an indescribable feeling; this idea that after 12 years of never giving up you are being seen marks a truly moving moment to say the least.
If one of the roles of the artist is to engage critically with the times in which they live, winning the Bowness enables me to continue doing so. I could not be more thankful, or more proud."
In 2019, more than 700 entries were received, with the finalists to be exhibited at Monash Gallery of Art until 17 November.
