2008 Mosman Festival

2008 Photography Competition winners announced

Posted Monday 27 October 2008

The winners of the 2008 Mosman Festival Photography Competition were announced at the Gala Opening of the Mosman Festival on Friday night. They are:

  • Primary student category: Jade Cunningham – Greenhouse Effect
  • Secondary student category: Kristie Muir – Self Portrait
  • Professional category: Marina Dearnley – Night Lights
  • Amateur category: Stephen Wiessner – Telling Textures
  • Mosman subject category: Noel Wilton – Balmoral after Wakelin

Residents of Mosman won in two of the categories. Noel Wilton won best Mosman Subject for his dreamy study Balmoral after Wakelin. Jade Cunningham won first prize in the Primary student category for her whimsical photograph Greenhouse Effect which features a scene of ecological mayhem as a plastic toy dinosaur devours a Bob the Builder type figurine.

A standout entry for the judge, curator Sandy Edwards, was the visually arresting Self Portrait by Kristie Muir of Frenchs Forest who won the Secondary Student award.

Overall Sandy Edwards was impressed with the variety of entries and especially the high standard and technical quality. She said “the Amateur, Secondary Student and Primary Student categories were particularly strong” and that “in some categories it was extremely competitive in selecting a winner”.

In the highly contested professional category Marina Dearnley of Alexandria won for Night Lights, a surreal and haunting portrayal of a child standing alone in a garish inner city streetscape. The ever popular amateur category revealed a diverse range of subjects from intimate portraits and figure studies to evocative landscapes and intriguing architectural studies. Stephen Wiesner’s prize winning Telling Textures explores the dark narrative possibilities of portrait photography with his portrayal of a dark dirt smeared face with a wild nocturnal stare.

There is still a chance for another entrant to win the Viewers Choice Award which will be announced at the end of the exhibition.

Competition & Exhibition sponsor, the Framing Workshop, Mosman has generously contributed to the prize pool with cash awards totaling over $2,000.

The Mosman Festival Photography Competition & Exhibition is on display at the Mosman Art Gallery until Sunday 9 November.