Spider silk inspires $30,000-winning photograph

19 August 2026

Photographer Troy Ruffels has taken out the 2026 Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize with Architectures of Connection, earning the top prize of $30,000.

The winner was announced at the opening of the finalists’ exhibition at Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre (MRAC).

Troy Ruffels, *Architectures of Connection.* The work draws inspiration from the 'ballooning' behaviour of spiders.

Ruffels’ winning work uses digital photography to explore the often invisible connections between living things. Printed on composite aluminium, the 70 x 120cm image draws inspiration from the ballooning behaviour of spiders, transforming a paddock into what Ruffels describes as a “fragile topography of peaks and troughs”.

The work asks how photography can make unseen structures of interdependence visible, focusing on the delicate but resilient connections that shape the natural world.

Two photographers were also recognised with Highly Commended awards: Jenny Pollak for A line in the sand, 2026, and Aidan Galeger for Into the Sun, 2025.

Jenny Pollak - A line in the sand, 2026. — Jenny Pollak - *A line in the sand, 2026.* As if harking back to its origins in the Blue Mountains, ash and debris from the 2019/2020 bushfires, carried one hundred kilometres down the Hawkesbury River by flooding rains, reconfigures itself on the tideline of my local beach as a series of mountain ranges. Bearing witness to the increasingly violent forces of both water and fire, I documented these black tidelines for many months, recently creating this small installation as a metaphor for our complicity around issues of global warming.

Aidan Galeger - ‍Into the Sun, 2025 — Aidan Galeger - ‍*Into the Sun, 2025.* Into the Sun is ANSCO daylight balanced colour film that expired in November 1953 that was sourced from the USA. Without prior exposure or manipulation, the film is tray processed in colour negative chemistry in complete darkness. The resulting image, while made using traditional practices, is unconventional in its representation. It bears the scars of 70+ years of oxidation, environmental influence and dye breakdown.

Now in its eighth year, the Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize is presented by the Australian Photographic Society (APS) and MRAC, and has established itself as one of Australia’s significant prizes for conceptual photography.

The competition is supported by Australian Photography, alongside Bengalla Mining Company and Malaba.

The 2026 finalists’ exhibition, including Ruffels’ winning work, continues at MRAC until 10 October 2026. All finalists will also receive a catalogue featuring the winning and shortlisted works.