The Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award returns to HOTA Gallery

The Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award, known as Australia’s richest acquisitive photographic award with a $25,000 prize, has returned to HOTA, Home of the Arts to showcase contemporary photographic practice.

An open call was issued nationwide for photographic works from emerging, mid-career, and established Australian artists. The works of the 32 finalists were revealed at a special ceremony, where guest judge Chris Saines CNZM, Director of the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), announced the winner.

Merilyn Fairskye whose work Focus infinity III (4.47am, 11 May 2024, Maralinga village) 2024 claimed the coveted first prize, with her work based on the global impact of the nuclear project and focuses on nuclear testing at Maralinga Village. Her works marks the continuation of a legacy that celebrates creativity and excellence in photography. 

Guest Judge of the evening, Chris Saines CNZM, Director, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) remarked of the winner “The spectacular pre-dawn cloudscape that looms over a charged and freighted landscape in Merilyn Fairskye’s Focus infinity III (4.47am, 11 May 2024, Maralinga village) summons up the memory of the nuclear clouds that once loomed over this Country.

This work functions at multiple levels, engaging the viewer in a bigger story than its otherwise ordinary subject. At one level, it succeeds as a striking large format colour- and light-saturated image of an outback campsite, but at another, it is inevitably joined to the history of this place, a moving reminder of what occurred here – the highly consequential impacts on the land and people of Maralinga that followed from nuclear testing.

The powerful events of 70 years ago, events that prompted these travellers to stay over in Maralinga Village and to rise early for their soon-to-depart nuclear tour, still seem to reverberate across the morning sky” he said. 

Highly commended artworks included Kaye Foster with Sylvan Codex 2022, Michelle Vine with the invisible (post-viral selfie II) and Tom Blachford with Kaufman’s Mistress (Arrival).

The award has served as a significant platform for photographic artists, enhancing the national profile of photographic art since its inception in 2002, in honour of the philanthropy of lifelong art supporter Mrs. Win Schubert AO.

The resulting exhibition reflects contemporary practices that explore a variety of themes and approaches. This award showcases the vibrant evolution of photography as a dynamic medium.

The finalists and winning artworks will be on display at HOTA Gallery, open to the public for free, inviting visitors to experience the compelling narratives and striking visuals. 

Visitors to the exhibition have the opportunity to vote for their favourite artwork and contribute to the People’s Choice Award by scanning a QR code on exiting. The winning artist for the People's Choice Award will be announced on Wednesday, 14 May 2025. The winning artist will receive a prize of $5,000 along with a $450 dining experience at the two hatted Palette 
restaurant. 

“The return of The Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award reaffirms our commitment to supporting the arts and providing a space for powerful storytelling through photography. This year’s winner reflects the calibre of all the finalists’ works, and we’re thrilled to celebrate their exceptional achievements.” said HOTA Gallery Director, Susi Muddiman OAM. 

Since the inception of the Award, HOTA has acquired over 60 works resulting in a celebrated City Collection that reflects changes in the cultural and social landscape over two decades. After the 2024/25 exhibition, HOTA Gallery will have the opportunity to acquire additional works for the Collection. 

Previous winners include wani toaishara, Tamara Dean, Shaun Gladwell, Darren Sylvester, Lynne Roberts-Goodwin, Polixeni Papapetrou, Polly Borland and Cherine Fahd.

Exhibition details
Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Award Photography Award 
Open until 11 May 2025
Open 10am – 4pm daily
Gallery 4, HOTA Gallery, 135 Bundall Rd, Surfers Paradise
Free 
https://hota.com.au/whats-on/live/exhibitions/josephine-ulrick-and-win-schubert-photography-award-2024 

Presented by Experience Gold Coast and HOTA through the generosity of the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Foundation for the Arts Trust.

2024 Judge:
Chris Saines CNZM, Director, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA)
Chris Saines has been a director, collection manager, educator and curator at leading Australian and New Zealand galleries for more than 40 years. Director of QAGOMA since 2013, he has overseen exhibitions by Robert MacPherson, Gerhard Richter, Sally Gabori, Gordon Bennett and Judy Watson, and led 2021’s ‘European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 
New York’. In this time, he has guided the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art through its eighth, ninth and tenth editions, and led the acquisition of major works by James Turrell and Olafur Eliasson. He is currently a member of the Brisbane Economic Development Agency’s Better Brisbane Alliance.

2024 Finalists:
Hameed Akinwande, Effy Alexakis, Chris Barry, Tom Blachford, Chris Budgeon, Anna Carey, David Cossini, Gerwyn Davies, Merinda Davies and Ellamay คงโรจน์Fitzgerald, Richmond Kobla Dido, Marian Drew, Rozalind Drummond, Antoinette Edmunds, Merilyn Fairskye, Kaye Forster, Joachim Froese, Richard Glover, Tim Gregory, Marnie Haddad, Naomi Hobson, Nicholas Hubicki, Nur Aishah Kenton, Mika Nakamura-Mather, Kellie O'Dempsey, Zorica Purlija, Andrew Rovenko, Sam Scoufos, Ali Tahayori, Hiromi Tango and Greg Piper, Michelle Vine, Torin Ward, Michael Zavros

WINNER
Merilyn Fairskye - Artist Statement:
Focus Infinity III is part of the ongoing Long Life Project (www.longlifeproject.com) that looks at the world through a nuclear lens. Current work is focused on Australia and its looming nuclear future. 

On a recent visit to Maralinga, site of British nuclear tests in the 50s and 60s, I wanted to see what would be revealed if I photographed in darkness. I headed out into the village surrounds with my camera and tripod at 4.30am. The sky was speckled with stars. A pack of dingoes called to each other nearby. My settings were f/1.4, 00:10 exposure, ISO 1600, focus ∞.

Biography:

Merilyn Fairskye’s art has been exhibited nationally and internationally in more than 175 curated solo and group exhibitions over the past forty years. Her practice traces the cultural, political and scientific webs that connect powerful events of real life, and encompasses a broad range of media and methods - from public artworks to video installations, artist films and photo media. Her ongoing art project Long Life (2009-) looks at the world through the lens of the post-Cold War nuclear age. Since 2009 she has visited nuclear sites in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, USA, UK and Australia to make art. 

HIGHLY COMMENDED
Tom Blachford - Artist Statement:
From the series Midnight Modern, the image shows the Kaufmann Desert house, considered one of the finest examples of International Style architecture in America, captured using only the light of the full moon and taken around midnight. A period correct Mercedes sits idle in the drive heralding the arrival of Mr Kaufmann's mistress, whom he built the house to spend time with. The image created in 2024 could have easily existed exactly the same in 1960 and lives in both worlds at once, unable to tell if it is day or night, now or then.

Biography:

Tom Blachford's fine art photography transforms familiar environments into surreal, dreamlike worlds through long exposures. He captures moments of clarity, color and mystery just beyond human perception, using his camera to explore dark, unseen realms. Fascinated by architecture, Blachford's images serve as stages for unwritten narratives, inviting viewers to imagine the stories behind each scene. Relying on existing light sources - the moon (Midnight Modern), Tokyo’s neon lights (Nihon Noir), or LA’s streetlights (Noct Angeles) - he distils overlooked cinematic moments into images that evoke mystery, unease and wonder. 

Kaye Forster - Artist Statement:
In Sylvan Codex, photographing beneath the surface of a dark lake in the light of a full moon seems to privilege an encounter with time itself. 

Beneath the mercurial water's surface, a 70-year-old, Ilford photographic film sheet unexpectedly captured this 'other world and time' in ancient and enigmatic terms.

Certainly, as I progressed with this project, the suspended black twigs and debris appeared to transmute into cryptic symbols waiting for translation. The moonlight helped to highlight this mystical convergence... a silent dialogue between the tangible and the ethereal... the Sylvan Codex.

Biography:

Originally from a fine arts background, Kaye Forster became interested in philosophy-based, conceptual art during her studies at Curtin University, WA. Encouraged by her mentors, she embraced vintage photography to gift a voice and connection to our sublime natural world.

These old processes, visually bridging the past and the present, remain Forster's passion. However, her versatility is an asset allowing her to create within diverse artistic disciplines. Forster’s art practice weaves together creativity and a deep love for our earth. Recent international invitations to exhibit her environmental works are a tribute to an art practice that continues to give. 

Michelle Vine - Artist Statement:
In moments of my own boredom, banality and fear, I experiment with representation of the unknown, the hidden and the invisible in a post-pandemic world. My mobile phone camera, always with me, is the artist tool I can rely upon now for its capacity to readily capture and express what is more often a very private experience – what it is to live with rapidly increasing chronic illness and disability. I am exploring the experiences of 'the invisible', those left behind in the aftermath of the pandemic, still immunocompromised, high risk and unseen

Biography:

Michelle Vine is photographer and installation artist. Best-known for her embraceable textile works, recently she shifted back to photomedia, experimenting with representation of her private experiences of chronic illness and disability. 

In 2024, Vine won the Brisbane Portrait Prize - Sylvia Jones Award for Women Artists for her photographic work. In 2020 she was selected for Hatched: The National Graduate Show at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art. Her photographic works have been shown at Artspace Mackay, and in the USA and Germany. 

Vine graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art (First Class Honours) from the Queensland College of Art in 2019. 

ENDS

CONTACT Danielle Ford | 0487 002 022 | ford@hota.com.au

Images available for download here