‘The 14th edition of the Bowness Photography Prize captures the
zeitgeist of contemporary Australian photography as a reflection of the
broader social and political environment within which we all live.
Katrin’s work speaks with quiet restraint about an issue that will
define our generation – the loss of our landscape and the destruction of
our planet. It is a powerful reflection on an intense event that left
our bush in cinders and took a horrific toll on communities with the
loss of so many loved ones. The 2009 Black Saturday bushfires left an
indelible mark on Victorians and its memory is a stark reminder of the
frailty of our communities and the environment, and our susceptibility
to extreme weather events as our climate changes. We are delighted that
this work will join MGA’s permanent collection.’
— Anouska Phizacklea, MGA Director
‘This year’s Bowness Photography Prize was highly competitive
with a vast array of high quality entries. After a prolonged debate
about the works we were delighted to announce Katrin Koenning as the
winner of the Bowness Photography Prize with her haunting and compelling
triptych work from the series Lake Mountain.
The triptych is a poignant and timely work that fits into a
larger conversation about the transience and fragility of the vulnerable
nature of the Australian landscape. It is a quiet and considered work
that speaks to the seductive and ethereal nature of Koenning’s oeuvre.
It lingers and stays with you, it not only presents the reality of the
issues we are dealing with but contextualises and invites enquiry.’
— Dr Christian Thompson AO
‘Katrin Koenning’s triptych Lake Mountain is an understated but
deeply affecting image whose appearance could hardly be more timely. As
parts of the country burn with unseasonal regularity and intensity,
Koenning reminds us of the lasting damage to the landscape when
bushfires reach such a level of ferocity that forest canopies explode
and trees irredeemably blacken and die, struggling to regenerate long
after the fire’s passing. In a moving lament for this loss, Koenning
takes us close into the forest floor of this otherwise beautiful
Victorian Alpine region, where a relatively young stand of trees are
still, a decade on from the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, all but
bereft of living foliage. Even the undergrowth seems unable to right
itself under the weight of what appears to be a light dusting of snow
(albeit it feels, in this context, more reminiscent of ash). Bushfires,
at
the level in which we are increasingly experiencing them, can and do
create their own kind of endless winter. Koenning’s eloquent requiem for
Lake Mountain is a remarkably composed and restrained but still urgent
and insistent cri de coeur. It asks us to reflect on the terms of our
coexistence with nature, and their sustainability, in an age of
environmental crisis.’
— Chris Saines, Director of Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
