Grandmother memorialised in unusual photograph

24 July 2017

$20,000 Olive Cotton Award Winner announced at Tweed Regional Gallery

Sydney photographer Justine Varga’s large-scale work in homage to her grandmother has won the $20,000 overall prize for the 2017 Olive Cotton Award, announced in an official opening and presentation ceremony at Tweed Regional Gallery, Murwillumbah on Saturday night.

Varga’s work, Maternal Line, was selected from the work of 72 finalists, including emerging and established photographers from throughout Australia.

This year’s judge, Dr Shaune Lakin, Senior Curator of Photography at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), took a number of hours to make his final selection, saying Varga’s entry is “a very moving portrait of the artist’s relationship with and love for her grandmother”.

Lakin described Maternal Line as “a series of scrawls made by the artist’s grandmother directly onto a piece of film [which] has been printed at monumental scale”.

“While Justine’s work is very contemporary, she’s also deeply interested in the history of photography. It’s a very complex photographic portrait; it made me think a lot about the act of the making a portrait – about what it means today to make a photograph of someone else, even if in the end it doesn’t reveal what they look like,” he said.

The Papapetrou Family, a striking portrait by Sydney photographer Anne Zahalka, caught the eye of both Lakin and the Gallery’s Director, Susi Muddiman OAM. The theatrical and highly constructed portrait - depicting celebrated photographer Polixeni Papapetrou and The Age art critic Robert Nelson - was snapped up as the 2017 Director’s Choice Acquisition for the Gallery, using funds from the Friends of the Gallery. It was also one of five Highly Commended works chosen by the Judge.

Lakin also Highly Commended:

• Jed & Sam 2016 by Warwick Baker from Melbourne (type C print) - an intimate and moving double portrait taken in the couple’s bedroom.

• Ghost 2017 by Tina Fiveash from Sydney (digital print) – a poignant and thought provoking image of a woman in the desert.

• My ghost 2017 by Polixeni Papapetrou from Melbourne (screen print on gold metallic foil and linen) – a haunting and beautiful portrait of the artist’s daughter Olympia.

• Timmily 2017 by Rod McNicol from Melbourne (digital print) – a striking portrait in McNicol’s ongoing documentary of the ‘variegated’ inhabitants of his home in inner city Melbourne.

Visitors to the exhibition can vote for their 'people’s choice', with a $250 prize for the most popular finalist, funded by the Friends of the Gallery.

A record 492 entries were received this year for the biennial award, which is funded by Olive Cotton’s family in memory of Cotton, who was one of Australia's leading 20th century photographers. Lakin is a keen proponent of Cotton’s work and was curator of the exhibition Max & Olive: The photographic life of Olive Cotton and Max Dupain which was toured by the NGA in 2016-17.

A full list of finalists is available on the Gallery’s website at http://artgallery.tweed.nsw.gov.au/PrizesAndAwards/OliveCotton.

The Olive Cotton Award exhibition will run until Sunday 8 October. The Gallery is open Wednesdays to Sundays from 10am to 5pm (closed Mondays and Tuesdays). Entry to view the exhibition is free.

Image captions

Winning photographer Justine Varga and 2017 judge Dr Shaune Lakin with overall prizewinner, Maternal Line.

Justine Varga

Maternal Line 2017

chromogenic hand printed photograph from 5 x 4 inch negative

Courtesy of the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide

Anne Zahalka

The Papapetrou Family 2017

dye sublimation on chromalux metal

Courtesy of ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne

Tina Fiveash

Ghost 2017