Shaune Lakin
'It’s an honour to be involved in the twentieth iteration of the Bowness Photography Prize, an award that celebrates current photographic practice, MAPh as a centre for practice, and the Bowness family’s role as long-stranding patrons of Australian photography.’

Shaune Lakin is Senior Curator, Photography at the National Gallery of Australia. Previous roles include Gallery Director, Monash Gallery of Art (now Museum of Australian Photography) and Senior Curator of Photography at the Australian War Memorial. Shaune’s curatorial projects are usually collaborative, often with colleague Anne O’Hehir, and tend to focus on the histories of feminist photography in Australia. Recent projects include work on the artists Olive Cotton, Peter Maloney and Carol Jerrems.

Anne Zahalka

‘I'm really looking forward to being part of the judging process for this year's Bowness Photography Prize. It will be exciting to see the breadth and depth of Australian photography in what has become a groundbreaking contemporary photo-media award.’

Anne Zahalka is one of Australia’s most recognised photo-media artists, with a career spanning over 40 years. She has held more than 40 solo exhibitions and has been curated into exhibitions across the world, including the Australian Embassy in Washington, the Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, South Korea. In 2019 Zahalka was commissioned by the Museum of Sydney to produce a series of portraits, restaging historic street photographs. In the same year, she travelled to Prague to undertake a residency at the Béhal Fejér Institute tracing her family’s story of persecution, exile and survival in a moving installation there.

A major survey of her work, curated by the Museum of Australian Photography in 2023, was one of their most visited exhibitions to date. Titled ZAHALKAWORLD – an artist’s archive, it included the immersive studio installation, Kunstkammer (2023), for which Zahalka won the 2023 Bowness Photography Prize. This survey show travelled to the National Art School Gallery (Sydney) in 2024, seeing excellent visitation; it continues to tour nationally. In June 2025 Zahalka will travel to Austria and participate alongside Australian and international photographers in the Baden La Gacilly Photo Festival.

Anouska Phizacklea

‘The gift from the Bowness Family Foundation is the most significant in MAPh’s history. It is a gift that will ensure the legacy of the prize, supporting generations of photographers in Australia. We are incredibly grateful for the philanthropic leadership of the Bowness Family Foundation; their sustained giving over decades to the arts community and the development of photography in Australia cannot be underestimated. Their support has enabled organisations to develop their capacity to grow and thrive, and to present groundbreaking exhibitions across Australia and beyond.’

Anouska Phizacklea (BA (hons), MA, MCom, CPA, GAICD) is Director of the Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh). She has expertise across the visual, decorative and literary arts as well as finance and organisational development, with Masters Degrees in both Fine Arts and Commerce.

Anouska is the co-President of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival. She has held senior management positions at leading Victorian public institutions, Heide Museum of Modern Art and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), and worked for many years in art research and valuations in galleries and auction houses in Melbourne and London.

Since her appointment at MAPh Phizacklea has curated group and single artist exhibitions with leading Australian practitioners including Allusion & Illusion: the fantastical world of Valerie Sparks (2018), Robyn Stacey: as still as life (2018), The Tucker portraits (2020) , Tamara Dean's Leave only footprints (2022) and commissioning exhibitions Portrait of Monash: the ties that bind (2020), STAGES: photography through the pandemic (2021) and the major survey exhibition and publication of Anne Zahalka, ZAHALKAWORLD – an artist’s archive (2023).

LEGACY

In 2006 a gift from the Bowness family established the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize: a landmark art prize that was the first of its kind in Australia championing photography as an artform. The gift to the Museum of Australian Photography Foundation (then Monash Gallery of Art Foundation) set up and secured a $10,000 annual prize, open to all Australian artists working with photography. The Prize increased over time to $30,000 per annum.

In the twenty years since its establishment more than 12,000 artists Australia-wide have been inspired to submit entries into the prize. Over 1000 artists’ works have been displayed at the annual exhibition of finalists, with 20 of these acquired by MAPh for its permanent collection. A total of $507,000 in prize money has been awarded to the annual winning artists, recognising excellence and innovation, and supporting their ongoing practice.

SECURING THE FUTURE

Having witnessed its far-reaching impact over two decades, MAPh, the MAPh Foundation and the Bowness family recognise the impact a prize can have on artists and their practice. Past prize winners have included local and internationally renowned artists such as Hoda Afshar, Pat Brassington, Amos Gebhardt, Petrina Hicks, Christian Thompson and Anne Zahalka.

A new $1million philanthropic gift from the Bowness Family Foundation will reinforce the prominence of the prize and cement the importance of photography into the future by supporting a number of new initiatives.

SUPPORT

This gift will increase the prize money to $50,000 and introduce $2,500 cash prizes for two Honourable Mentions. Funds will also be provided for the first time to shortlisted artists in the form of loan fees, and to guest judges for their services. This new structure, and increases to the prize amount awarded, will make it the richest cash prize for photography in Australia. This is in addition to discounted printing, framing and shipping from MAPh’s partners to all entrants.