Mount Gulaga by Sammy Hawker
Winner of the $15,000 prize

For the third year in succession, a Canberran has won the MCPP. After Judy Parker won in 2020 and Ian Skinner in 2021, this year the first prize of $15,000 went to Sammy Hawker.

Hawker works predominantly with film, often in close association with traditional custodians. In recent years she has had highly successful solo shows. She challenges the notion that a photograph constitutes the moment a camera shutter is released. She constantly explores ways of making, rather than taking, images.
 
The concept statement for Hawker’s winning image read:

“This work was captured on 4x5 film looking out towards Mount Gulaga from the Wallaga Lake headland. I processed the negative with ocean water collected from site. When processing film with salt water the corrosive properties lifts the silver emulsion and the representational image is rendered vague. However an essence of the site is introduced to the frame as the vibrant matter paints its way onto the negative. A ghost of Gulaga looms behind the abstraction ~ felt rather than seen.”

 The adjudicators also nominated three honourable mentions:

Moth by Julie Williams

35mm slide recovered in Lismore floods 2022 by Claire Conroy

Soup's up! by Ben Blick-Hodge