TIERNEY FELLOWSHIP 2023
The Photography section at the Michaelis School of Fine Art is pleased to announce the 2023 recipient of the Tierney Fellowship, Vanessa Cowling.
Vanessa’s work for the Tierney Fellowship will focus on extending her Sustainable Darkroom Garden project, begun during her MFA which she completed in 2022. The title of the exhibition is Fixing the Shadows, a photographic exploration of beginnings and endings. Fixing the Shadows is a photographic project that focuses on processes of cameraless photography and seeks out new ways to work with darkroom-based photography that aims to be less environmentally destructive.
For the Tierney Fellowship project she aims to produce a field guide of recipes and images produced by sustainable photographic methods. This will include recipes and experiments for the various process made with indigenous plants, their residue compost and other organic processing materials.
The Tierney Fellowship programme ran for the first time in South Africa in 2008. Partner institutions include the Market Photo Workshop, WITS School of Arts and The Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town.
The Tierney Fellowship has assisted in creating opportunities for photographers to develop their practice. It provides the successful applicant with the necessary resources to support the research, self-directed learning in the growth of a photographic body of work, collaborating with mentors, and access to a photographic arts and journalism community that now has global reach.
