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National Photographic Portrait Prize 2013 Finalist
I photographed my father, Harl Mallam APM, in the parade uniform of the New South Wales Mounted Police, where he started his police career. This uniform has great significance to us as a family because we spent many hours spit polishing his boots and applying whitener to the sash, in order that he might receive the award for ‘Best turned out mounted policeman’ (which he did). The NSW Mounted Police is the oldest mounted police force in the world, so my father is depicted in a von Guérard-like vista of the Blue Mountains – proud, observant, casting a policeman's gaze back on his life.
The National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition is selected from a national field of entries that reflect the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.
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