The winner of the Bowness Photography prize in which Stephen Dupont's Blue Boy is a finalist will be announced on Thursday October 4, 2012.
The online catalogue with all the finalist's work and artist statements can be viewed here.
The Blue Boy from the series Piksa Nuigini Finalist in the 2012 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize
Stephen DUPONT
Artist Statement:
The series Piksa Nuigini or Picture New Guinea aims to capture the human spirit of the people of Papua New Guinea (PNG). In a sense the series is a window inside humanity in one of the world's last truly wild and unique frontiers. It's about tribal identity in 2011, and the annual Highland's Sing-Sing festivals might be the last cultural showcase of tradition and custom left.
My photograph aims to showcase not just the visual anthropology of a race and land, but to highlight the effects of rapid changes taking place on traditional values and cultural identity. In recent times PNG has gone through some of the most significant cultural shifts and change since the early days of colonisation. The work aims to document what I see as 'detribalisation', where PNG society is losing its culture due to the impact of globilisation.