Two Powerhouse Photography Commissions recipients announced

Sorry 2000 photograph courtesy of Jo-Anne Driessens, winner of this year’s Powerhouse First Nations Right of Reply Photography Commission. © Jo-Anne Driessens.

Guwa-Koa, Gungarri, and Kuku Yalanji photographer Jo-Anne Driessens and Architecture photographer Tasha Tylee have each been awarded a $20,000 photography commission, which will see them collaborate with Powerhouse over the next 12 months to develop major new works. The First Nations Right of Reply Photography Commission invites an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander photographer to undertake a commission that responds to the Powerhouse Collection with the intent to Indigenise, counter and investigate narratives of the applied arts and sciences through a First Nations lens. Jo-Anne Driessens has developed her photography practice documenting community and place in urban, remote and regional Aboriginal communities over the past 30 years. Since completing a photography cadetship at the State Library of Queensland in 1999, Driessens has worked in various photography and curatorial roles with a focus on archival and anthropological research exhibition programs and Aboriginal Family history support. For Driessens the camera is an important tool for capturing the preservation of living culture in First Nations communities. This tool will remain central in Driessens’ commission project as she collaborates with Powerhouse staff, First Nations knowledge keepers, cultural advisers and Country to create an experimental pin hole camera with natural materials.

Sawmill Treehouse by Robbie Walker; final image by Tasha Tylee, winner of the Powerhouse Photography Architectural Commission. © Tasha Tylee.

The Powerhouse Photography Architectural Commission aims to develop new perspectives on Australian architecture and the built environment, with a focus on construction, urban development, housing, infrastructure and sustainability. Tasha Tylee’s slow, deliberate approach to documenting spaces has resulted in working with some of Australia’s top firms, most notably capturing Naples Street House by Edition Office, the 2024 AIA National Winner of The Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture. Focusing on themes of sustainability and climate, the Melbourne-based photographer will document innovation in architecture and the Australian built environment by following newly developed sustainable materials from their natural form, through to manufacturing, fabrication, installation, and their final use in a completed build.

Learn more about Powerhouse Photography and the successful photography commission recipients at https://museumofappliedartsandsciences.cmail19.com/t/y-l-cddfyk-drltyhktyk-h/.