05/10/2026
Bowness Photography Prize 2026: COSMIC CAPTURE
Diverse themes, subjects and approaches surface in the final field of the 2026 Bowness Photography Prize. Here, the artists get cosmological. Read their statements below and come see the images in person at MAPh!
Harry Nankin: This print digitally stitches together the analogue cameraless shadows of cloth and cosmos. I recorded the imprint of stars on the dry salt bed of Lake Tyrrell, Victoria, by exposing a sheet of medium-speed panchromatic gelatin-silver film to the naked light of the moonless-night-sky pressed beneath an old astronomical glass-plate negative. I cast the cloth shadows by exposing a sheet of fine-grain orthochromatic gelatin-silver film under muslin fabric to flash in the darkroom.
This juxtaposition of yarn and universe alludes to the fragility of our torn world, entanglements we are yet to unpick, and a question: can we discern hope, solace – even redemption – in the great wilderness of the heavens?
Kristian Haggblom: ‘Some conjecture about Halley’s Comet’ is a project that draws on childhood memory to interrogate belief systems associated with science, myth, family and photography. During the 1986 orbit of Halley’s Comet my father was insistent on capturing images of this celestial occurrence and he also claims that he took me on these adventures. Yet I have completely no recognition of this. This project uses the original surviving photographs that my father made as its impetus. The images inform the photographs that were made through analogue processes and attempt to map the terrain tangentially depicting the locations, comet surface, and its inevitable future collision. The cyclical essence of the story and speculative nature of the imagery is reflective of Halley’s periodic apparition and the associated stories – of both destiny and doom – it generates.
🗓️Until 8 November
💌 FREE
✨ Curated by MAPh Director Anouska Phizacklea
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Images:
Harry NANKIN
Will the cosmos recall what we are forgetting? #4 (Shaula in Scorpius) 2026
ink-jet print
courtesy of the artist
Kristian HAGGBLOM
Some conjecture about Halley’s Comet 2025
ink-jet prints, gelatin silver print
courtesy of the artist
