© National Portrait Gallery 2025
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Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018 Finalist
Julie, a wildlife carer in Melbourne, has spent the last four years fostering orphaned grey-headed flying foxes (also known as fruit bats). She bottle-feeds them six times a day, moisturises their wings with baby lotion and keeps them stimulated with kids’ toys. In the wild, mother bats would lick them clean, but Julie draws the line at that! All going well, at about two months of age they will go to a larger crèche before being released into the flying fox colony at Melbourne’s Yarra Bend Park. The species, a vitally important pollinator for our native forests, has suffered significant population decline and is now listed as vulnerable. Julie’s work is more important than ever.
The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.
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