Victorian photographer, Anna Higgins has won this year’s Bowness Photography Prize with a layered image based on a 16mm film captured during a visit to the Victorian Alps in Summer 2024.
Anna HIGGINS: Two horizons 2025; winner of the 2025 Bowness Photography Prize. Pigment ink-jet prints, screenprint, varnish; courtesy of the artist. © Anna Higgins.
The Museum of Australian Photography has announced Anna Higgins as the winner of the 2025 William & Winifred Bowness Photography Prize. Higgins receives a cash prize of $50,000 and her work will be acquired into MAPh’s collection. Her winning picture shows mirrored diptych that was created from two frames from a 16 mm film layered with in-camera double exposures as well as repeated white screenprints on the print’s surface, using freeze-frames from 8 mm film. According to the artist, the work aims to challenge conventions of how the landscape is depicted in photography, foregrounding the ephemeral, abstract and painterly qualities of film and light. Film stills were used to create a feeling of movement, a poetic sense of memory and reverie, and to reflect on the way the fleeting moments of light are encountered by the camera lens. The competition judges stated: This composite image demonstrates technical mastery of both analogue and digital processes, where Higgins works with light and landscape to create an otherworldly experience of Victorian Alpine country.
The judges also selected two honourable mentions, James Tylor and Sarah Rhodes, who each receive $2,500. The artist selected for the Wai Tang Commissioning Award will receive $10,000 and the opportunity to exhibit a body of work throughout next year’s Bowness Photography Prize season. The People’s Choice winner will be awarded a cash prize of $5,000: voting has commenced and will close 9 November 2025. Both recipients will be announced in November. Click here for more information.
