Sydney-based artist Anne Zahalka has been named winner of the 2023 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize for her work ‘Kunstkammer’ (2023).
Anne Zahalka: ‘Kunstkammer (detail) 2023’, pigment ink-jet prints on forex, furniture, archival materials, paper; 358.0 x 430.0 x 288.0 cm, © courtesy of the artist.
Over the last 17 years, the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize has emerged as an important annual survey of contemporary photographic practice in Australia and one of the most prestigious prizes in the country. Every year the Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh) invites artists to submit photo-based media including analogue and digital photography created over the last year for consideration. Zahalka’s winning image is based on an early painting technique known as trompe l’oeil where architectural spaces, still-lives, or objects are rendered in painstaking realism. In this image, this ‘trick of the eye’ is replaced here with the ‘camera’s eye’ to seamlessly replicate the photographer’s studio in a scale of 1:1.
The judges were impressed with the calibre of the works in the exhibition and have named images by Ayman Kaake, Craig Tuffin and Justine Varga for Honourable Mentions. An exhibition of this year’s entries will be on display at the MAPh from 21 September to 12 November, 2023. Click here for more information.
