Fine Art PhD candidate Ellen Dahl has been awarded the prestigious $30,000 National Photography Prize 2024.
Ms Dahl was awarded the prize for Four Days Before Winter, a selection from her PhD project completed in the School of Creative Arts and Media.
Judge Nici Cumpston OAM said the 12 finalists had provided a dynamic showcase of contemporary photography.
The four-part work explores the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. The archipelago is one of the fastest warming places on earth, causing the permafrost to thaw for the first time in recorded history. Paradoxically, it also has a long multi-national history of coal mining that is still operating today.
Four Days Before Winter resulted from what Dahl considers a three-way collaborative process between the site of Svalbard, the camera optics and the artist. This process is reflected in the physical or material outcome of each of the final artworks.
Originally from Arctic Norway, Ms Dahl began her PhD at the University in 2019 and recently submitted her final work, Field Notes from the Edge.
“Congratulations to the overall winner Ellen Dahl for her heartbreakingly beautiful images from the series Four Days Before Winter, sharing the harsh reality of global warming on the Arctic environment in the Norwegian Archipelago of Svalbard,” Ms Cumpston said.
The biennial National Photography Prize was established in 1983 and is Australia's longest running acquisitive photographic award. It showcases the work of leading and emerging artists from across the country who are pushing the boundaries of the photographic medium.
“For Four Days Before Winter to be acknowledged in this way by judge Nici Cumpston, amongst such an incredible cohort, within a highly respected photographic prize - one that considers a body of work rather than just a single image - feels incredible and humbling,” Ms Dahl said.
The National Photography Prize is generously supported by the Murray Art Museum Albury Art Foundation.
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