Olive Cotton Award - for photographic portraiture
Background
The Olive Cotton Award is an annual award for excellence in photographic portraiture offering a $10,000 major prize, funded by Cotton’s family in memory of “one of Australia's leading twentieth century photographers” (Art Gallery NSW, 2000).
In 2005 the Friends of the Tweed River Art Gallery have sponsored additional Directors Choice awards to the value of $2,000. All awards are acquisitive with the winning works becoming part of the Tweed River Art Gallery’s “Australian Portrait Collection”.
The exhibition is selected from entrants across Australia and is a significant opportunity for both emerging and established photographers. Photographer Sally McInerney, daughter of Olive Cotton, was the inaugural judge.
Further information regarding yearly awards can be found by clicking on the menu items provided to the left of the screen.
A short biography of Olive Cotton
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Olive Cotton (1943)
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Adapted from information provided by Sally McInerney, May 2005.
Olive Cotton (1911-2003) discovered the art of photography in childhood and stayed committed to it all her life. Her mother was a talented painter who died young; her father, a geologist, had learnt the elements of photography for his journey to the Antarctic in 1907 and later taught it to his children.
Having graduated with an Arts degree, Olive Cotton worked successfully as a photographer at the Dupain studios in Sydney until the end of World War 2, then moved with her new husband Ross McInerney, to the bush near Koorawatha, NSW. For 20 years she had no access to darkroom facilities, but kept taking photographs.
In 1964 Cotton opened a small studio in Cowra and took local portraits, weddings and commissions. After a 40 year absence from the city art scene she re-emerged in 1985 with her first solo show at the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney, she then concentrated on rediscovering and printing her life's work.
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