On Wednesday 29 August, our Year 9 Photography students visited the Yarra Ranges Regional Museum in Lilydale. We were lucky to be able to view the current exhibition, the Australian National Portrait Prize in Photography, which is touring Australia.
The National Portrait Prize is annual event intended to promote the very best in contemporary photography portraiture by both professional and aspiring Australian photographers. Students were enlightened when realising they, too, could enter their own work into this competition.
While viewing the works they engaged in discussion questioning ‘what is a portrait and what makes a good portrait?’. They paired up, chose their favourite artwork and justified which one they personally felt should have won this prestigious prize, valued at $50,000. They also spent time drawing each other’s portraits. They left inspired and with a greater understanding of what one might focus on and consider when telling someone’s story through the camera lens.
