Mat Hughes wins curators prize

Three Van Dyke Brown prints by Melbourne photographer Mat Hughes won the Curators Award at the Tacit Gallery Still Life Prize 2021. The Tacit Gallery Still Life Prize 2021 features work from painters, printmakers and photographers and is on display at the Tacit Gallery, 191-193 Johnston Street, Collingwood until 18 December 2021.   

‘This body of work, six images in total, was made during last year’s Covid19 lockdown in Melbourne. The series, made over a two-week period, explores isolation and the resulting change to our life-balance. The photographs describe a state of mind, the sense of endless mundane house-bound routine against the often-overlooked simple pleasures, like watching sunlight falling on a vase of flowers. These are not static vignettes; there is a chase scene. Sunlight appears to visibly race across the wall infusing the scene with a warm glow and in that perfect fraction of a second everything is in absolute balance and all of our current worries are forgotten and we can once again breathe…      

These photographs were made on film using a large format 4 x 5 camera. The lens was replaced by with two magnifying glasses. A combination of film and digital techniques allowed for a negative to be contact printed for these final prints. The paper was coated by hand with a light sensitive emulsion in preparation for the 19th century, Van Dyke Brown printing process. Each handmade print is unique and finished with bee’s wax.’

The Photograph Considered by Mat Hughes can be seen here.