Artwork: Joachim Froese, Paolo and Po, 2023, Gold toned salt print from digital file, 36cm x 42cm.
Joachim Froese has been selected as a finalist for the Brisbane Portrait Prize
Congratulations to Joachim Froese, whose work Paolo and Po, was selected for the Brisbane Portrait Prize.
The Brisbane Portrait Prize celebrates Brisbane portrait artists and their sitters, while encouraging public engagement with the arts. Any artist with a connection to Brisbane is eligible to enter.
Prizes include the $50,000 Lord Mayor’s Prize, the $10,000 Accenture Digital Award, and the $7,500 Courier-Mail People’s Choice Award.
Joachim Froese’s work was selected by 2023 finalist judges: Dr Holly Arden, Art educator, curator, author, and former Interim and Associate Director of UQ Art Museum; and Teho Ropeyarn, Curator of the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair. Final prizes will be awarded by Chief Judge Suzanne Cotter, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Paolo and Po is a mixed media work, combining digital photography with salt printing, the oldest working photographic process pioneered by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1839.
The image was first shot on a mobile phone, edited and manipulated in Photoshop and then turned into a digitally printed negative. It has then been used to create photographic paper by coating watercolour paper with a light sensitive solution based on table salt and silver nitrate. The digital negative is exposed onto this paper, processed, toned in gold, and finally fixed.
The portrait’s subjects are Paolo Magagnoli and his beloved pet. Magagnoli is a photo historian and Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland. Po is a pedigree chihuahua who isn’t interested in photography but loves salted potato crisps.
The Brisbane Portrait Prize is on exhibition at the Brisbane Powerhouse from 28 September – 29 October 2023.
Joachim Froese is photographer and educator who lives and works in Brisbane and Berlin. His images have been shown in exhibitions across Australia, Europe, Asia and North America and his work is held in numerous public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, and QAGOMA.