2019 Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize

2019 Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize
Image: Tamara Dean - Endangered

The Moran Photographic Prize asks snappers to submit images reflecting life in Australia. This year, the winners of the main prize ($50,000), Tamara Dean, and the student prizes ($2,000 to $5,000, with an equal amount going to their school), have chosen subjects that seem to be on a similar spectrum, in that they both explore human habitation on this multifaceted continent. 

In Dean’s work, Endangered, nude swimmers are shown in the sea, in contemplation of what it means for the Great Barrier Reef to be endangered. Might we humans, too, become endangered? Or are we already? The composition of the photograph is striking, using depth of colour and light, and the symmetry of the body to notable effect. “To see ourselves as different and separate to the ecology and ecosystem of our planet is leaving humanity unprepared. We are mammals in a sensitive ecosystem, vulnerable to the same forces of climate change as every other living creature,” notes Dean.

Significantly, the Year 7-8 and Year 9-10 winners also feature water: Jetson Buhlmann’s, Waiting For Sunrise and Mathias Decker’s, Fish People.

In the Year 11-12 category Anousha Cavalier’s winning submission, Alice Springs Dance Floor youth gather atop a hill overlooking a vast view, a red sun peering over the horizon. They are relaxed and carefree, and the image brings to mind playfulness and hope. But the scrub reminds the viewer that this continent, although surrounded by water, is nevertheless always vulnerable to the elements. These photographs, like many others in the exhibit, show how tenuous life in Australia might become. 

Until Jun 2. Juniper Hall, 250 Oxford Street, Paddington. FREE. Info: www.moranprizes.com.au

 

By Olga Azar

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