TOPshots is an annual celebration of emerging photomedia artists at MGA. Established more than a decade ago, this award and exhibition continues to showcase exceptional photographic work produced by students who have completed the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) subjects of Art, Media and Studio Arts, as well as the International Baccalaureate (IB) Visual Arts.
The artworks displayed in this exhibition have been selected from a large pool of entries, and represent a small sample of the creative talent that emerged out of Melbourne’s high schools in 2021. MGA is proud to have the opportunity to foreground and acknowledge the excellence of young photomedia artists in our community while providing a vital platform for these artists to share and exhibit their work.
The winner of the inaugural Rosie Hughes Memorial Prize, sponsored by The Waverley Camera Club in memory of their late member Rosie Hughes is Madison Jeffares from Caufield Grammar School. Jeffares's winning artwork ‘Soteria’s garden’ explores the idea of sanctuary as simultaneously being an escape from danger and a place of peace. Using the photogravure process and the form of a triptych, Jeffares embraces the interplay between the picturesque and semi-sublime landscape to create an idyllic paradise that can be appreciated as both a natural beauty and as a shelter from the pressures of Year 12 and a global pandemic.
Curator: Stella Loftus-Hills
Artists: Ella Chawkley | Emerald Secondary College, Mikayla Crossett | Glen Waverley Secondary College, Lucy Crowe | Sacre Coeur, Sebastian Crupi | Kew High School, Gabrielle Edwards | Vermont Secondary College, Stella Hammet | Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Isabella Hughes | Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak, Madison Jeffares | Caulfield Grammar School, Chloe Lochhead | Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak, Tom Machin | Carey Baptist Grammar School, Jemima Mantello | Toorak College, Olivia McQuitty | Avila College, Rochelle Paris | Beaconhills College, Jodhi Ramsden-Mavric | Albert Park College, Lucy Vickers-Willis | Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak
