Olive Cotton finalists a snapshot of modern lives
21 July 2017
Finalists on exhibition at Tweed Regional Gallery from today
The 72 finalists in this year’s Olive Cotton Award for photographic portraits, opening at Tweed Regional Gallery today, are a “snapshot of our times”, according to Award Coordinator Anouk Beck.
Ms Beck said the 2017 judge, Shaune Lakin, chose a shortlist of finalists that examined many contemporary issues and reflected the ideas, techniques and styles of the overall record pool of entries.
“Entrants have explored themes of masculinity, cultural diversity and immigration, transgender transformation, family and mortality,” she said.
“The portraits range from theatrically-posed tableaux to moments advantageously snatched.”
A total of 492 entries were received for the 2017 award, continuing a steady increase in submissions for the Gallery’s biennial competition. All 72 finalists will be on exhibition at Tweed Regional Gallery until Sunday 8 October.
Twelve-year-old Tweed Shire resident Ari Messina is among the finalists, along with a number of well-known photographers including Michael Cook, Polixeni Papapetrou, Stephen Dupont, Anne Zahalka and Julie Rrap.
They are vying for a $20,000 prize for the overall winner, to be announced at the opening function and awards announcement on Saturday from 5pm.
This year’s Olive Cotton Award has again attracted a wide spectrum of photographic styles. Some have embraced an historic wet plate printing technique, while others challenge the whole concept of a portrait – at a time when technology is transforming photographic portraiture.
Dr Lakin, the National Gallery of Australia’s Senior Curator Photography, said “we shared about 24 billion selfies in 2015, and who knows how many photographs of friends sitting opposite the dinner table or of children doing this or that are among the more than one trillion photographs we will take and share this year.
“All of this has had a huge impact, not just on the social practice of photographic portraiture but on its form.
“Think, for example, about the way that the digital selfie phenomenon has produced a new portrait pose, one that views the face from above and highlights forehead, raised eyebrow and pouty lips.
For further information, visit http://artgallery.tweed.nsw.gov.au or phone the Gallery on (02) 6670 2790.
Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre is open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm.
Downloads
Photo 1(JPG, 94KB)
Caption: James BRICKWOOD, British Comedian Bill Bailey 2016, type C print
Photo 2
Caption: Stephen DUPONT, Up in the Sky 2016, giclee digital print, 100 x 150cm