Paradox
Marion Rodgers
- Sitter: Marion Rodgers
- Medium: Photograph
- Dimensions: 60cm x 90cm
- Representation: This artist represents themselves
2025 Veracity Digital Prize
Proudly supported by
Veracity
About the artwork
In this unearthly self-portrait, abstract photographer Marion Rodgers presents an exploration of self through an Impressionistic lens.
“This self-portrait was of necessity, a frozen moment in time, in my life. My object was to create an Impressionistic image of a pensive figure, not necessarily a lifelike one, but showing a narrative of identity and elements of my life.”
Set against the backdrop of an overflowing bookcase, the image nods to Rodgers’ intellectual and creative curiosity, reflecting a lifetime of learning and artistic exploration. Captured in-camera, the deliberately blurred and out-of-shape image highlights emotion over clarity, inviting viewers to feel rather than simply see.
“I was endeavouring to depict a thoughtful and avid reader/photographer… The main issue, as I saw it, was how to create the impression of a somewhat surreal, ethereal figure and lend form to the unseen. The meaning of a subject can often be more clearly seen in abstraction, so distortion was the key.”
About the artist
Marion Rodgers is a fine art photographer specialising in Impressionistic portraiture and abstraction. She has lived and worked in Brisbane for over 60 years and had solo shows at the Queensland Centre for Photography. Her work has been published in the UK and USA and she has been a finalist in major art awards. This is her fourth time in the Brisbane Portrait Prize.
Judge's Notes
Marion Rodger’s work Paradox is aptly titled, as she poignantly and with quiet provocation states that ‘the meaning of a subject can often be more clearly seen in abstraction’. There is a humility but understated confidence to this self-portrait. It is simultaneously revealing and withholding – allusive and suggestive in its narrative rather than obvious or prescriptive.
Rodgers has sensitively manipulated digital technologies to arrive at an image that is experimental, subject to chance, yet in her intention to look through and evoke an ‘impressionistic lens’ she has cleverly blurred boundaries between the photographic and the painterly. Paradox is a contemplation on the certainties and unknown forces that shape our lives. For me it is a self-portrait of delicacy and determination; of self-awareness and self-doubt; of resilience and a relish for life.
Jason Smith, Director, Art Gallery of South Australia
Chief Judge, 2025
