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Canberra Today 22°/24° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Heartbreaking image of pet wins Photographic Prize

TWENTY-TWO year old Melbourne photographer Janelle Low has won the $25,000 National Photographic Portrait Prize for 2013, it was announced by Prime Minister  Julia Gillard today. 

“Yhonnie and Indiana,” 2012 Janelle Low, digital print
“Yhonnie and Indiana,” 2012 Janelle Low, digital print
The gallery received over 1,200 entries for the prize and NPG director Louise Doyle, NPG curator Joanna Gilmour and  artist and writer Martyn Jolly selected the final 53 portraits and the winner, only the second female winner in the prize’s six-year history.

Originally from Western Australia, Low, who claims mixed Teochew and Peranakan parentage from Singapore, came to Melbourne to train at TAFE, taking out a diploma in photography at RMIT in 2010.

Since that time she has “done nothing but photography for two years… that’s all I want to do.”

Low told “CityNews” she had been reflecting on her age. “The fact that I’m just 22 means that this really is a life-changing event that will allow me to take my work further.”

Her current photographic investigation concerns the physical and cultural landscape of Australia with special attention to multicultural issues.

As part of an ongoing study she had been documenting the work of Indigenous glassblower Yhonnie Scarce, whose sculptural work will soon go to the next  Venice Bienniale. “Yhonnie had been very upset for a few days when I took this photo of her with Indiana, who had been in hospital.”

Lowe said that the picture was not composed, but was “organic,”  and that the fine green vessel was 19-year-old pet cat Indiana’s regular food bowl. Sadly, Indiana died some days after the photograph was taken and was so weak that the image was not easy to capture and that, although lovable,  she was “a diva to the end.”

“Australians love their animals,” Low said, “this is for anyone who has ever loved and lost a pet.”

The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2013 exhibition, at the National Portrait Gallery until May 19. The show will then tour to Blue Mountains Regional Gallery, Grafton Regional Gallery, Roma on Bungil Gallery and CabooltureRegionalArtGallery. Entry is free to all venues.

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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