‘illuminate ’26

Visual Arts Exhibition Review

‘illuminate ’26 – Friends of the Gardens Photographic Group

Australian National Botanic Gardens Visitors Centre Gallery

5 – 29 November 2026

The Friends of the Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) Photographic Group has been in existence since 2011. It brings together people interested in photographing the natural world. Their emphasis is on capturing images of native plants, birds, animals and fungi, especially those found in the ANBG. The more experienced photographers in the Group share their knowledge and experience with other members, through individual mentoring and workshops.

The ‘Illuminate’ annual photography exhibition is an opportunity for Group members to display and offer for sale their photos in the ANBG Visitor Information Centre Gallery. Members also provide merchandise such as calendars for sale. Sales help support the operation of the Gardens.

Exhibitions in the Gallery explore the Australian environment through diverse creative forms. This annual exhibition is of photographic artworks, using light to illuminate the subjects in a variety of ways.

Yet again the standard of the works in this year’s exhibition is high – both technically and creatively. The imagery is what we expect in nature exhibitions – focussed absolutely on nature, fauna and flora, depicted authentically, and capturing the highly valued essence of nature. There are portraits of native plants, close-up images of Australian flowers, birds and insects, and intimate landscapes in the gardens.

This year’s judges selected images by four entrants as winners, runners up and highly commended entries. The winner of the David Cox Memorial Award (which honours and celebrates the contribution made to the Photographic Group’s activities by the late David Cox) for images of flora and fungi was Simone Slater, for her fine image of rain droplets on a plant known as Eucalyptus pulverulenta or ‘Baby blue’.

Baby Blue after the rain, Simone Slater

The runner up in this category was Pam Rooney for her image of an actinodium cunninghamii (or swamp daisy) and a highly commended award went to Debbie Howard for her image of a homoranthus darwinioides (or fairy bells) plant.

Swamp Daisy, Pam Rooney

Fairy Bells, Debbie Howard

In the fauna category, Pam Rooney was again successful, this time taking out the top spot for a delightful image of a mother Australian wood duck with her oh so cute ducklings.

Australian Wood Ducks, mother and ducklings, Pam Rooney

Simone Slater again featured too. This time her image of a spiky bird dropping spider (Calaenia calotoides) was runner up. And Narelle Aldridge’s image of a Thread-waisted Wasp (Sphecidae on Calandrinia ememaea) “drinking it in” was highly commended.

Spiky!, Simone Slater

Drink It In, Narelle Aldridge

In addition, the rangers at ANBG also selected one work for their Ranger award. They are experienced educators who specialise in bringing the stories of the Gardens to life. So it is most appropriate to allow them the opportunity to select an award.

They selected a very different image to those already mentioned. It shows a group of eucalyptus rossii, commonly known as inland scribbly gum or white gum, a species of small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. They are alongside one of the quiet pathways in the gardens where visitors regularly wander.

The Quiet Path, Emily Erwich

Other works which particularly attracted my attention included a pleasing shot of white everlasting daisies, a most interesting circular presentation of a Banksia Epica flower spike, and a vibrantly coloured portrayal of the spikes on a Philotus manglesii (Pom-Pom).

White Everlasting Daisies, Brenda Runnegar

Banksia Epica, Karin Neufeld

Pom Pom, Narelle Aldridge

And finally, I must mention an image of the gardens’ wonderful Grass Trees by Steven Playford. Yes, there are male photographers in the exhibition! In fact, by my count, the exhibitors are 9 men and 10 women.

Grass Trees in the fog, Steven Playford

This is an exhibition well worth visiting if you can – to see all the artworks, not just the ones I have shown and/or spoken about here. You would also have an opportunity to pick up some delightful Christmas gifts for friends or family whilst you are there.

This review is also available on the Canberra Critics Circle blog.

Cloud Studies

Visual Arts Review

Cloud Studies | Rebecca Beardmore, Leah Beeferman, Yvette Hamilton, Anna Madeleine Raupach

Photo Access, Canberra, Australia | 24 September – 24 October 2026

The Cloud Studies exhibition is presented in partnership with the Canberra Art Biennial, which is Canberra’s biennial contemporary public art festival. The artworks have as a height datum contour 556, the water level of Lake Burley Griffin, which links the event in name as well as in purpose to the history of the central Canberra landscape. The artworks and installations selected for the festival respond in some way to Canberra’s history, from 65,000 years to the present day. The Biennial, therefore, offers the Canberra, Australian and international community a unique opportunity to engage with and understand the layers of Canberra’s history through art.

The exhibition is at Photo Access, which is the Canberra region’s centre for contemporary photography, film, video and media arts. It has brought together four artists to imagine the atmosphere as a threshold, where clouds hover between the natural and the technological. They consider clouds not only as weather forms but as symbolic spaces where history, representation, science, and environmental change converge.

The artists photography, video, data visualisation and printmaking artworks in the exhibition echo the contemporary “cloud” of digital and algorithmic technologies. The atmosphere emerges here as a frontier, where earth and sky, human and machine, presence and disappearance intersect.

Rebecca Beardmore’s experimental printmaking practice investigates intersections of photography, materiality, and image-making systems. Current research explores moiré patterns as perceptual thresholds, revealing tensions between analogue tactility and algorithmic translation. She is exhibiting seven photopolymer photogravure pieces. They are all strong pieces, with the largest one shown below being the standout artwork for me.

Rebecca Beardmore, Plate 4: Cumulus of strong vertical extent, WMO 1956 (1956/2026), Reconstruction (left panel), 2026, photopolymer photogravure, 180 x 107 cm (Installation image by Brian Rope)

Leah Beeferman makes digital images, prints, objects, and videos, records sound and writes texts. She seeks to understand the atmosphere: the ways it makes weather forms, forms landscapes, and alters them. Her contributions to the exhibition are a video with sound, a dye sublimation print on fabric, and a CNC-routed aluminum piece. For readers who do not know, CNC refers to a computer-controlled machine used for cutting various materials

Aluminum is the most abundant metallic element in Earth’s crust. It appears as a silvery grey metal and is known for its low density, high conductivity, and versatility. Beeferman has created a delightful artwork relating to the Kennaook/Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station near the north-west tip of Australia’s island State of Tasmania. That scientific observatory plays a critical role in understanding our atmosphere and monitoring key drivers of climate change.

Leah Beeferman, The Uncertainty Location (Kennaook-Cape Grim), 2026, CNC routed aluminum, 180 x 107 cm (Installation image by Brian Rope)

Leah Beeferman, Shadow Clouds Form (Barbados), 2024, Dye sublimation print on fabric, 335 x 183 cm (Installation image by Brian Rope)

Leah Beeferman, And this atmosphere, an elusive alphabet, 2026, video with sound, 10 minutes

Anna Madeleine Raupach is a multidisciplinary artist. Her practice engages with science and technology to critically address socio-political issues enmeshed with climate change. Her four pieces in the exhibition include one comprising Fresnel lenses and jump rings which are suspended from the ceiling and fascinating to look into and through – whilst doing so, I couldn’t resist capturing four photographs with my phone camera.

Another Raupach artwork features polaroids, hand-drawn animation and a custom display module. She also is showing a Neural Radiance Field HD video and another created from YouTube videos, electronic display modules, and chalk. Each of these exhibits drew me in and held my attention for some time.

Anna Madeleine Raupach, Still from In an instant, 2026, polaroids, hand-drawn animation, custom display module, 14.5 x 10 cm (Installation image by Brian Rope)

Anna Madeleine Raupach, Still from Places on Earth Where all Forces are Absent, 2025-2026, Neural Radiance Field HD video, 6:55 min. (Installation image by Brian Rope)

Yvette Hamilton’s photographic practice spans analogue, digital and alternative practices, and is conceptually guided by ontological explorations of photography and the link between vision and knowledge. She is exhibiting several silver gelatin lumen prints, a piece comprising a photographic collage, LED lights and a microprocessor, and The Middle Air, a limited-edition artist book.

The prints are delightful portrayals of clouds wherein viewers might visualise various landscapes. A shaft of light regularly penetrates the collage artwork then fades away. The displayed copy of the book is well worth looking through. Copies of it are available for purchase, with each containing a unique lumen cloud silver gelatin photograph, hand-printed by the artist.

Yvette Hamilton, Optical Depth #4, 2026, Unique silver gelatin lumen print, digital print on glass, custom frame, 50 x 40 cm (Installation image by Brian Rope)

Yvette Hamilton, Observation Point: Rising Air, 2026, Photographic Collage: Unique C type prints, silver gelatin lumen prints, LED lights, microprocessor (Installation image by Brian Rope)

Yvette Hamilton, The Middle Air, 2026, Artist book, 48 pages, Edition of 50. (Installation image by Brian Rope)

Overall, this is a most interesting exhibition. It achieves its purpose and is a valuable participant in the art biennial.

This review is also available on the Canberra Critics Circle blog.

National Workers Memorial

in the National Triangle in the National Capital of Australia

National Workers Memorial – © Brian Rope

The National Workers Memorial in the National Triangle in Canberra, the National Capital of Australia was created to pay tribute to working Australians who have died as a result of work-related accidents, incidents and disease and to recognise the vital contribution and achievement of Australian workers to the building of the Australian nation. It also serves as a poignant reminder of the need for sustained and concerted effort to achieve work health and safety in Australia.

The ‘Workers’ Glade’ design of the memorial comprises the 8 stone columns you can see in my image. They are positioned to reflect the outline of Australia. Crafted from stone sourced from each of the 6 States and 2 Territories in Australia, the columns symbolise the communities, families and workers of each region.

The memorial is just one of several memorials in the National Triangle. The Triangle precinct is also surrounded by national treasures and cultural icons that define Australia’s rich history. It is home to Australian Parliament House, Reconciliation Place, ANZAC Parade, National Cultural Institutions, the National Carillon, Commonwealth Park and Kings Park with Lake Burley Griffin at its centre.

(The information above was sourced from the websites of the National Workers memorial and the National Triangle)

National Photographic Portrait Prize Retrospective

Visual Art Exhibition Review

National  Photographic Portrait Prize (NPPP) – Retrospective | Various Artists

National Portrait Gallery (NPG) | 22 August – 11 October 2026

The National Photographic Portrait Prize (NPPP) was first conducted in 2007. Whilst at the NPG, the final NPPP in 2026 (which I’ve previously reviewed) is accompanied by selected finalists from previous years. This review discusses some of the latter.

Grant Hawkes’ subject fell asleep during a documentary they were watching. When entering it in the 2007 NPPP, the artist said that the image explored the significance of objects and their assumed symbolism in portraiture. Looking back on it after 20 years, he found himself drawn to his use of a “dramatic pose to describe a state of rest.” I’m not sure how a sleeping subject could actually pose, dramatically or otherwise. Nevertheless, it an excellent composition and it reveals more than a traditional portrait.

Grant Hawkes – She Fell Asleep During the Movie, 2007, pigment photographic print (sheet: 32.4cm x 48cm), National Photographic Portrait Prize 2007 Finalist

However, Samantha Harris, 2010 is a traditional head-on portrait. Hamish Ta-Mé was creating a series in which he asked many of his models to be photographed immediately on arrival at the studio before “hair and makeup.” His collaborative creations sought to convey intensity and engagement. In this particular image, I certainly believe he achieved his aim. He and his model are engaged. I can feel the intensity.

Hamish Ta-Mé – Samantha Harris, 2010 (printed 2026), pigment photographic print (sheet: 86.7cm x 65cm), National Photographic Portrait Prize 2011 Finalist

David Rosetzky’s portrait of champion Australian ballroom dancer Lyu Masuda is from an ongoing series of analogue, double-exposures using 35mm film. They bring together images of flowers with individuals from LGBTQIA+ communities. I enjoyed this print, particularly for the translucent area over the subject’s left eye. The flowing lines of the flowers seem most appropriate in a portrait of a dancer.

David Rosetzky – Lyu with Orchid, 2017 (printed 2026), pigment photographic print (sheet: 106.6cm x 82.4cm), National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018 Finalist

Comment on the image of the charismatic Bob Hawke was a no brainer. The artist, known for his playful works, simply found the pose he would capture the moment Hawke walked in sipping through a pink straw. It was chosen as their favourite by people who saw the 2018 NPPP. Readers with no knowledge of Hawke might appreciate why if I mention that he was a highly popular Australian Prime Minister, trade union leader, and reformist politician and that he set a Guinness World Record by drinking 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds when at Oxford University. Australians loved the larrikin in Hawke.

Harold David – The Honourable Bob Hawke Savouring a Strawberry Milkshake, 2017 (printed 2026), pigment photographic print (sheet: 67cm x 50cm), National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018 People’s Choice Award

A self-portrait finalist in 2019 sought to reference the collective anxiety and uncertainty of the climate threat that defined those times. The title is a well-known colloquialism for a situation both impending and unavoidable. The artist disappears into a constellation of flowers. Some may struggle to see this artwork as portraiture, but it is one of many successful NPPP entries over the years that have challenged viewers whilst successfully redefining the concept of portraiture. When I reviewed the 2019 NPPP, I described this work as elaborate and stunning, with its vivid colours immediately attracting attention.

Dr Christian Thompson AO – Writing on the Wall, 2019, pigment photographic print (sheet: 120cm x 120cm), National Photographic Portrait Prize 2020 Finalist

In The Mahi-mahi, Josh Niland, a head chef and restaurant owner, reinvents what can be done with every part of a fish, to drastically reduce wastage. Photographer, Rob Palmer, seeks to create honest portraits celebrating people behind such stories. This work was the 2019 NPPP winner.

Rob Palmer – The Mahi-mahi, 2019 (printed 2026), pigment photographic print (sheet: 75.8cm x 113.5cm), National Photographic Portrait Prize 2020 Winner

Finally, a comment on the 2024 NPPP Art Handlers’ Award. Artist Shelley Xue uses photography, personal objects and archives to remember, reconnect and reflect on family and home. When, after three years apart, she reunited with her mother for three precious weeks, she felt as though she’d never previously truly seen mum. During their reunion, mother told daughter stories she had never known. She exuded childlike joy and sought her daughter’s hand on walks. This most interesting portrait beautifully captures those feelings.

Shelley Xue – 阿谊 (ah Yi), 2023, pigment photographic print on paper (sheet: 90cm x 60.8cm), National Photographic Portrait Prize 2024 Art Handlers’ Award

If you are unable to visit the exhibition, all the artworks can be seen here. (The retrospective images will not be joining the 2026 finalists when the exhibition goes on tour to various other venues.)

This review is also available on the Canberra Critics Circle blog.

Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize (MCPP) 2026

Photography Exhibition Review

Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize (MCPP) 2026 (Various artists)

Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre (MRAC) – 13 August to 10 October 2026

2026 sees the 8^th Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize (MCPP), although it had other names in its early years.

The winner of this year’s $30,000 prize is Troy Ruffels for a digital print on Composite Aluminium, titled Architectures of Connection, 2026. It will be acquired and join all previous MCPP winners in the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre (MRAC) permanent collection of post-war contemporary paintings, ceramic and photography.

The artist statement explains the title, telling us that “what usually escapes perception appears as a fleeting architecture of connection.” It shows us fine strands revealing patterns of movement and explores how photography can reveal delicate yet resilient connections.

Troy Ruffels – Architectures of Connection, 2026, Digital Print on Composite Aluminium, 70 × 120 × 3 cm

The adjudicators also Highly Commended Jenny Pollak for ‘A line in the sand’ and Aidan Galeger for ‘Into the Sun’. Those works, and all the other selected finalists and their accompanying artist statements can be seen in a virtual gallery here.

As always when an exhibition’s artworks are by numerous entrants, I’ll now follow my practice of discussing just a selection of other exhibits I found most interesting.

Ann Vardanega’s artwork is part of a project about domestic and family violence. In this piece, the artist has successfully explored the concept of the environment as a place of regeneration. It is excellent to have an artist responding to an incredibly important issue.

Ann Vardanega – Spirit of the Land 2, 2025, digital inkjet print on cotton rag paper, framed

David Bignell’s ‘Reflecting’ looks at a person through an apparently moving train’s window. His concept is that by showing a blurred figure amidst reflections from inside and outside the window, he is showing us something of how our memories are often what determines how we see ourselves. I related strongly to this because reflections in and through windows are a significant part of my own photography – although I have never thought about my work in the way Bignell has done.

David Bignell – Reflecting, 2026, Inkjet print on Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Gloss

Another artwork addressing a most important issue is by Julie Millowick. Its title clearly identifies the issue – plastic in waterways being ingested by marine life, thus causing the marine consumer’s death. Noting that plastic pollution has become endemic, the artist photographs plastic bags so they seem to be in waterways and so the created visual beauty hides the toxic impact.

Julie Millowick, Plastic in waterways is consumed by marine life who perceive it as algae or jellyfish_3, 2025, Digital Image, Inkjet print on 100% Cotton Rag

Lilli Waters is a Thai-Australian. Here she has explored her Thai heritage and ancestral mythology. The underwater still-life intertwines plants, flowers, and fish. The resultant meditative scene reflects Waters’ pre-occupation with the natural world in the context of her cultural memory. Essentially an autobiographical landscape, this is a most attractive visual artwork. Printing it on fibre rag adds to its beauty.

Lilli Waters – Nāga’s Lanterns โคมไฟของนาค, 2025, archival pigment print on fibre rag

Peter Charuk’s video artwork engages with a landscape where cane is grown. He has recorded a rapidly changing landscape. The outcome is an excellent contribution to discussion about the significantly important issue of climate change. It challenges us to ask ourselves what the social implications of our human use of the landscape are.

Peter Charuk – Collateral Atmospherics 28 18’ 51’’ S 153 26’ 4’’ E, 2026, single-channel video, colour, sound (stereo)

Rebecca Polonski’s ‘Un-Becoming’ addresses yet another important social issue in today’s world. The artist has done this by using negative images and excluding elements that she did not wish to show. Lichen on one side of the artwork draws our attention away from the face on the opposite side. This portrays the feelings of today’s youth that are overlooked or pushed to the fringes of our crowded world. The artist statement says that over time the cloth on which the piece is printed will weather and the youngster will gradually disappear. Of course, or young selves all do that as we age.

Rebecca Polonski – Un-Becoming, 2026, Pigmented ink on linen

The final exhibit I will mention is by Sandra Barnard. Her artist statement reveals it is a camera-less photograph made by exposing photographic paper inside an enlarger’s bellows. She has put various objects into that space and exposed them directly. In the resultant “reversed” image, the subject has become the film and the print is, in effect, the negative. The artwork references William Henry Fox Talbot’s 1844 negative-positive photographic process and, specifically, that artist’s work ‘Articles of Glass’

Sandra Barnard – That Might Look Good in My Enlarger II – Cruets CMYKRGB, 2025, Hand printed Chromogenic Photograph

Go see this exhibition if you can.  And study the works and artist statements closely online.

This review is also available on the Canberra Critics Circle blog.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2026

Visual Art Exhibition Review

National  Photographic Portrait Prize 2026 | Various Artists

National Portrait Gallery | 22 August – 11 October 2026

Warwick Art Gallery | 21 November 2026 – 16 January 2027

Glasshouse Port Macquarie | 6 February – 28 March 2027

Unley Museum | 16 April – 17 July 2027

Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts & Culture Centre | 21 August -23 October 2027

Gympie Regional Gallery | 26 November 2027 – 5 February 2028

The National Photographic Portrait Prize was first conducted in 2007. This is the final one. This year’s 30 finalists are in this exhibition. So too are 30 selected finalists from previous years. This review only discusses this year’s artworks.

One might say that 2026 was the year for Naarm/Melbourne photo artists as almost half of the finalists, including all three winners, are based there. The chosen winner is Nathan Beard. The First Time Finalist Award has been given to Phuong Nguyen Le. The Art Handlers’ Award was given to Hussein Abdirahman Mohamud. Their three winning images have, naturally, already been published and written about in numerous other places, so I will only look at some of the other 27 finalists here.

I really enjoyed The Falling, by collaborators Lakie Sideris and Gretel Taylor. Sideris is the artist who took the photograph. Taylor – a dance artist, curator and researcher known for her site-specific performance work – is the subject. The excellent image of a falling movement is a powerful portrayal of sensing and moving with the surrounding environment.

The Falling, 2026 – Laki Sideris, Gretel Taylor, pigment photographic print (frame: 87.0cm x 62.3cm depth 4.0cm)

There is much to look at in Walkabout, by Michael Cook. This portrait places its subject at the heart of Japan’s commercial district, memorialising aspects of Japanese culture. Whilst letting you explore it for yourself, I have to mention one thing that particularly attracted my attention. The subject is holding numerous dogs on leads. Watching them from high above is a cat. Not just any cat, but one who is a symbol of the Metropolitan Police Department. I imagine it pouncing should any dog misbehave.

Walkabout, 2025 – Michael Cook, pigment photographic print (frame: 125.1cm x 164.0cm depth 6.1cm)

Franky Tsang’s artwork, Between us, is a delightful study of his young daughter sitting quietly on her own. Tsang was nearby, watching from a short distance when he took the image, so it includes the nearby surroundings. The colourfully dressed child is beautifully lit seated beneath a streetlamp, whilst the surroundings are monotone. The image is an excellent example of the artist’s portraiture practice which focusses on subtle, often unspoken moments.

Between us, 2025 – Franky Tsang, pigment photographic print (frame: 90.0cm x 120.0cm depth 4.5cm)

Another diptych, by collaborators Briony Galligan and Abbra Kotlarczyk, explores  family trees, queerness, toxicity and healing. The artists explain their intention to use  a double exposure to counter “the idea that supposedly containable units of one’s family, body, identity and history are sealed in some way”. Regardless of that, both parts of the gentle, colourful diptych are delightful.

Arranging by chance (doctored exposure), 2025 – Briony Galligan, Abbra Kotlarczyk, diptych: pigment photographic prints (various (see individual records for details))

Another finalist is a high-quality monochrome portrait by Dean Saffron of a much-loved indigenous Australian photographer, Mervyn Bishop. He is pictured reflecting quietly just before his 80th birthday. Appropriately, he is accompanied by his own reflection. He is portrayed in the same honest way that his own works over many years have ensured other Aboriginal people have been seen.

Uncle Mervyn Bishop – Australia’s first Aboriginal press photographer, 2025 – Dean Saffron, gelatin silver photograph (image: 94cm x 140cm. frame: 103.3cm x 153.2cm depth 3.5cm)

I was personally most pleased to see a work by Madeline Bishop. I have known her since she was a baby and keenly followed her developing artist career. The image was shot as part of a series exploring how people make homes from the shell’s they’ve been given. The concept is “like spaces, our bodies hold history, memory and evidence of our experiences; the site for our hopes, dreams, anxieties and fears to play out.”

On the chair, 2025 – Madeline Bishop – pigment photographic print (frame: 59.8cm x 59.8cm depth 4.0cm)

I loved the idea behind A portrait as a parent. Mia M. McDonald began with a candid portrait taken in her kitchen. A print of it was attached to a wall and her kids were invited to hand-colour it as they wished. The end result was this most colourful fun portrait which, to my mind, perfectly portrays the colouring-in activity loved by children. I do have one small wish – I would have liked to see a little more of mum’s face.

A portrait as a parent, 2025 – Mia M. McDonald – lambda photographic print (frame: 120.2cm x 80.2cm depth 4.7cm)

Finally, a comment about a work by Canberra’s Sammy Hawker who continues to explore a diverse range of experimental techniques. The chromatograms are the most intriguing portraits I have ever seen. What do you think of the artwork?

Three Siblings Chromatograms of Emmie, Rasmus and Cosmos, 2026 – Sammy Hawker pigment photographic print (sight: 50.6cm x 134.0cm. frame: 54.4cm x 137.8cm depth 3.5cm)

If you are not able to visit the exhibition, all the finalists can be seen at https://www.portrait.gov.au/nppp-images.php. You can also vote for the People’s Choice Award there – voting closes Wednesday 30 September 2026.

This review is also available on the Canberra Critics Circle blog and in the October 2026 issue of The Printer (and online magazine of the Australian Photographic Society).

A shorter review has also been published on the Canberra City News website.

Reading Frames: explorations in what makes a photograph work

Book Review

Reading Frames: explorations in what makes a photograph work | W. Scott Olsen

The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City ©2026. All rights reserved.

Copyright for photographs remains with the individual photographers.

ISBN: 9781647692810 paperback | 9781647692827 epub

In 2020, I received an email from Tomash Trzebiatowski, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of FRAMES magazine asking if we could connect via Zoom. We did so nine days later. Six years on Tomasz and FRAMES have achieved extraordinary things. As I write the FRAMES Magazine Facebook group has 25,200 members.

I have read many of W. Scott Olsen’s monthly essays for FRAMES magazine. This book is some Olsen essays from the digital pages of FRAMES. Trzebiatowski correctly suggests Olsen’s writing is mentorship.

Using “plain language” for “people deeply involved in making photographs”, Olsen explains how images combine artistic elements and, thus, reach levels of sophistication and insight. Each essay starts Let’s begin with, and stay with, the image.

The first image I want to share here is by an Australian, Lyndall Gerlach. The Contemporary Lifestyle is a triptych I have seen before; once accompanied by these words:

It is 2021, 2 years into a pandemic that has so far killed 4,692,850 from 228,413,499 infected people. We are accepting there will be more deaths, as our society tries to find ‘normal’. My triptych illustrates life for some vulnerable ‘high risk’ people. It’s about their contemporary lifestyle choice, staying alive. Time and relationships irrelevant, days merge, contained, among written memories of other times, a far-seeing telescope, a couch to sleep on. Curtains shade reminders of life, alcohol dulls the pain and encourages sleep. Time passes. Painful aloneness, living it is a contemporary lifestyle for some.

The Contemporary Lifestyle by Lyndall Gerlach

In this book, Olsen writes beautifully describing the three parts of the triptych as the equivalent of a musical chord which has at least three notes played together, creating a richer, more nuanced combination. He suggests the three panels form an intellectual narrative.

Next, an image by Monica Riveiro from Spain. On her website she says photography inhabits a space between dreams and reality. Her image here is of two boys jumping into the sea from a pier. It is one of numerous street photography images she took in an urban space, Punta de Liquerique.

From Tales of Liquerique by Monica Riveiro

Olsen writes about the frozen moments that become photographs. He says at first glance the situation shown here was completely familiar, but that a deeper look revealed an inviting mystery. He suggests the somewhat ominous sky and city appearance in this black and white image would instead have a mood of summertime joy if it was in colour.

My third chosen image portrays a ballerina, photographed whilst the photographer was visiting Cuba. Cathy Cakebread, from the USA, uses photography as a way to slow down and, here, she has sought to capture the movement by doing just that – slowing it down.

Cuban Ballerina by Cathy Swain Cakebread

Olsen discusses how to make a ballet image fresh and original and says Cakebread has done it wonderfully. He explores shapes in the setting, elements of art, the ballerina’s pose, our privileged point of view, and the defining blur. He tells us what he saw.

My fourth selection is a view from a hotel window in Scotland. We’ve all taken such shots. This is by Ross Duncan, another Australian. It shows some old, inhabited buildings. The central home here is deliciously lit becoming a feature we are drawn to.

View from a hotel window by Ross Duncan

Olsen talks about the title identifying the point of view – the photographer is in a temporary residence looking at someone else’s permanent home. He sees a sadness created in the disconnect between hotel and home and suggests the twilight image is mesmerising because that is a time of change.

Finally, I share an Italian renaissance. Photographer Giuseppe Gradella from Mantua in Italy believes in memories and dreams, and this fine-artwork has a beautiful dream-like feeling.

Italian Renaissance by Giuseppe Gradella

Olsen comments about the frosted glass both revealing and obscuring the woman holding it. He draws our attention to squares and right angles, to the direction of cascading light, to the visual and narrative motion in the still-life image. He sees a specific real woman, a specific real place – and a moment where one woman becomes every woman.

Exploring this book has made think more about images that stop me – on webpages, in books, at exhibitions. I encourage you to do likewise.

This review is also available on the Canberra Critics Circle blog.

Canberra Contemporary Photographic Prize 2026

Visual Art Exhibition Review

Canberra Contemporary Photographic Prize 2026 I Various Artists

Photo Access I 16 July – 15 August 2026

The Canberra Contemporary Photographic Prize is an annual competition event conducted by Photo Access which results in an exhibition celebrating both emerging and established talents in photo media. Open to photographers worldwide, regardless of experience level, it showcases new perspectives in contemporary photography, offering a kaleidoscopic view of photographic art.

Forty finalists’ artworks are on display. The winning piece this year is 엄마의 초상화 (Portrait of My Mother), 2026 by Estelle Yoon. At the opening, after this was announced, I was one of many people who went in to check it out and overheard several of them querying how it could possibly be a portrait of the artist’s mother – given that there was no physical person in the image. Rather it is a photograph of an empty chair at the edge of an otherwise empty structure overlooking a frozen lake with part of a bridge in the background. So the questions in the viewers minds were fair enough.

Estelle Yoon – 엄마의 초상화 (Portrait of My Mother), 2026, glass, 35mm photograph, 43 x 28 cm (image courtesy photo access)

However, referral to the artist’s statement answers everything. The location is the artist’s late mother’s childhood home. She imagined her mother sitting there. The print is on glass, thus mirroring the fragile nature of our memories. The portrait attempts to hold on to what is gone. So, in my view, this artwork is a worthy choice by the judges.

There are, inevitably, numerous other works that might be selected as the best by different viewers. But that’s the way it always is with competitions. From the forty works selected as finalists, I felt that a large number of them would have been serious contenders and I’m glad I didn’t have to make the choice. I don’t have room to discuss all of them, but here are my comments about a small selection of the others.

Lisa Jayne Cramer’s work is also about a mother, but a very different one. Hidden Mother I-III, 2026 is a triptych which tells a powerful story about the artist’s desire to be a mother which never eventuated despite years of persistence. Her dream, her hoped for role as a mother, sadly evaporated leaving her to grieve, to let go, to care for herself rather than the child she wanted. As a person who adopted children because we couldn’t produce our own, this work spoke loudly to me.

Lisa Jayne Cramer – Hidden Mother I-III, 2026, archival pigment print, 41.2 × 97.6 cm (image courtesy photo access)

Danica Chappell’s Kaleidoscope series, 2025 is another delightful triptych. I think this is the first time I have seen an albumen work that is hand-coloured on vintage typewriter paper. I love the fact that the artist has flouted the long-held “rule” that light-sensitive paper or film should never be touched. That was drummed into my head years ago, along with the need to ensure our workspaces in darkrooms and water used in processing were all clean. Experimentation is how, as artists, people learn and develop new skills – and produce this type of most interesting work.

Danica Chappell – Kaleidoscope series, 2025, albumen, hand coloured on vintage typewriter paper, 41.5 x 97.8 cm (image courtesy photo access)

It is partly for the same reason that I enjoyed Resurfacing Roots, 2025 by Anna Kiparis. She used Maribyrnong River mud water to submerge her analogue film photographs of the landscape to mirror and commemorate the impacts of the 2022 Maribyrnong River flood. The resultant artwork shown in this exhibition speaks clearly to us.

Anna Kiparis – Resurfacing Roots, 2025, Maribyrnong River mud water, pigment ink on cotton rag, 80 x 55 cm (image courtesy photo access)

Josh Hughes has produced a most interesting video work titled How do you move?, 2026. It focusses exclusively on isolated body parts (the hands, feet, and mouth). It pushes and pulls, pitting ‘opposing actions’ against each other and revealing a grey area in between. It is well worth spending 4 minutes 38 seconds to view and listen to it all.

Josh Hughes – How do you move?, 2026, single-channel digital video, sound, 00:04:38, installation dimensions variable (image courtesy photo access)

The final artwork I will specifically mention is Together/Apart, 2025 by Ryan Dandelion. It is simply a contact silver gelatin print of a dry glass plate negative which cracked as he removed it from the holder to tray develop. The crack passed through the stone of a ring upon a pair of crossed hands. That simple mishap spoke to the artist, saying “Together yet forever apart.”

Ryan Dandelion – Together/Apart, 2025, silver gelatin print, 25.4 x 20.3 cm (image courtesy photo access)

There is so much of interest amongst the forty works on display. The exhibition is well worth a visit, but if you are not able to get there you can (at the time of my writing this) see all the actual works (not installation views of them) and read the artist statements here.

This review is also available on the Canberra Critics Circle blog

New Surroundings

New Surroundings – A recent move has opened up new photographic experiences

Every few months I write a piece for publication on the APS Focus page of Australian Photography magazine. My latest piece, New Surroundings, has been published in the current (August-September 2026) issue. Here it is (below a scan of the published piece):

My wife and I recently moved to a brand-new retirement village and now live in an apartment on the first floor of a modern four-storey building surrounded by three other blocks. Windows, sliding glass doors and a balcony provide varied views facing north, west and south. Opening windows and doors have flyscreens. All have a variety of curtains and blinds, some of which are translucent.

In between the major tasks of unpacking and settling in (including hanging far too many framed photographs), participating in various events designed to get to know other newly arrived residents, and much more, I have been grabbing images on my phone camera as I see things through, or reflected in, the glass – sometimes a combination of reflections in, and things beyond, the glass. Occasionally I shoot through the flyscreens, blinds or curtains.

I have also pulled the phone out of my pocket whilst walking between and around the four blocks to capture other things that caught my eye. Sunlight creates some wonderful designs on walls, windows, trees, outdoor furniture and even inside the village library facility as the last rays struck and passed through its windows.

If you read my Finding Images article in the February-March 2026 issue of this magazine, you might recall I advocated looking everywhere around and about us when photographing our surroundings. Taking my own advice in my new surroundings has delivered quite a lot of images that I am pleased with and which others who have seen them have applauded.

Of course, I can’t show you all the shots I’ve taken on this page, just one that I particularly like. But, if you are interested, you can see more of them online on the three different APS Facebook pages, plus my own Facebook and Instagram accounts.

No doubt I will continue to see new things in the village to photograph as the seasons change, as the gardens develop, and as more and more residents join us here. However, as soon as time permits I will also go out and about with my real camera to start exploring the neighbourhood, the suburban streets, activities at some recreation ovals just along our street, the local shopping centres, an expansive new playground and park I’ve just glimpsed whilst driving by, street signs, passing people and traffic, and much more that I know nothing of as yet.

Another photography adventure has commenced.

Sunlight magic © Brian Rope

Through curtained windows © Brian Rope

Time Carved In Stone

Book Review

Time Carved In Stone: Benjamin Kopilow

All photographs, text and design by Benjamin Kopilow

Published by Benjamin Kopilow, ©2026. All rights reserved.

1^st Edition. Published in Canberra, Australia

ISBN: 978-1-291-82268-7

The cover of the book – image © Benjamin Kopilow

Benjamin Kopilow is a photographer, teacher and mentor. I have personally experienced Ben in all those roles when he has spoken and shown his images at our local photographic society, and evaluated members’ works providing quality commentary and advice.

Kopilow’s interest in visual art didn’t begin with photography, but with conversations with his painter father as he grew up – about colour, shape, light, and composition. Painting wasn’t his talent, but photography became his way of exploring those same ideas. More than twenty years after a mid-30s career change to photography, this experienced and award-winning photographer says he is still fascinated by the way light, colour and composition can transform an ordinary scene into something memorable.

In 2025 Kopilow and his wife travelled through some of the world’s great desert and wilderness places, those of California and the Great Colorado Basin. He says the four weeks journey enabled him to explore and experience those places through form, shadow, texture, colour, and scale. He believes landscapes are sculptures shaped by time, and geological forces, then revealed in different ways by ever changing light.

Using images captured during the journey, Kopilow has now created this book. Time Carved in Stone is not simply images showing readers where they travelled. Much more significantly, this artist (for that is what he is) through his photo-art and accompanying words enables us to vicariously see what he refers to as a journey through deep time.

Each of twenty chapters looks at another place. First up is Death Valley with its salt-cracked floor. The last explores the polished granite walls of Yosemite National Park, well-known for the famous Ansel Adams’ images of it.

Death Valley © Benjamin Kopilow

Along the way we see various canyons including, of course, the Grand Canyon. The Kolb Brothers (who invented the selfie) pioneered the capturing of this canyon’s beauty in black and white in the early 1900s, but Kopilow’s beautiful colour images here are something else. We see the folded spine of Capitol Reef and the vast red silence of Monument Valley. The artist tells us that all of his landscape images are not merely describing, they allow us to see them in quiet contemplation. He is right.

Before the first chapter there are informative words, a map and an image of the Colorado Basin. Then there are 64 pages of glorious images revealing, amongst other features, Kanab and Horseshoe Bend.

Kanab Sand Caves © Benjamin Kopilow

Next some words about and images of Monument Valley inform and reveal to us that the glorious landscape and the magical sounds of traditional flutes of the Navajo. Then we learn about numerous other locations, including Factory Butte, Hickman Bridge, Escalante, Kodachrome Basin, Maple Mountain Provo, and Great Salt Lake.

In the chapter about Factory Butte there is an illustrated page of information about Buttes, Mesas, Pinnacles and Hoodoos. Here it is, so you can read it and learn if, like me, you need to.

If, again like me, you have never visited some of these places, you may not have even heard their names. Nevertheless, as you explore the pages you will recognise particular features because you have seen photos of them before. But there will be many other features that are new to you. Regardless of which category any particular image fits into for each of us, every one of them is an excellent sensory contribution to our appreciation of the geological history of these areas.

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Land © Benjamin Kopilow

The images in each chapter reveal peaceful places that our minds can return to without necessarily looking at them again. I suspect those who practice meditation would consider them most useful resources.

Bryce Canyon & Fairyland © Benjamin Kopilow

We are able to explore these places that have been shaped by geology – by prehistoric oceans and inland seas, vanished deserts, restless rivers. For hundreds of millions of years, unseen geological forces have been quietly sculpting. It has been said that in these places is North America’s hidden backbone, the ancient core beneath us when flying or driving over, or walking amongst, them.

Moonscape Canyon © Benjamin Kopilow

The quality of both the words and images in this book provide a basis for us to think about the passage of time and its significance in life. Kopilow has used his personal sensory experiences to create images which have transformed the centuries old landscapes into living archives. He has delivered an excellent contribution to what is known as the quiet narrative genre, which relies primarily on his visual storytelling to convey messages, evoke emotions, and provoke thought. It challenges our perceptions and offers a deeper understanding of our human experiences.

Links to make purchases of the book in e-book, paperback and hard cover formats are available on the artist’s website, Lulu, Kobo and Ben’s Books.

This review is also available on the Canberra Critics Circle blog and in the October 2026 issue of the Australian Photographic Society’s online magazine The Printer: https://www.a-p-s.org.au/index.php/downloads-new/print-group/the-printer/the-printer-2026/1524-04-the-printer-oct-2026/file