Acknowledgement of Country

Ballarat International Foto Biennale acknowledges the Wadawurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we live, work and create. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and honour the deep traditions of storytelling, culture and connection held by First Nations peoples across Australia.

Enter GradFoto 2026

Image: Minh An Pham, Rồi một ngày con sẽ mất – Someday I will lose you, 2025. Winner GradFoto Award 2025.

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The Ballarat International Foto Biennale is thrilled to present GradFoto 2026.

This award celebrates the artistic excellence of graduating students in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. It is open to emerging contemporary artists from selected institutions whose artistic practice includes photography. Following its inaugural launch in 2020, GradFoto continues to showcase the high calibre of photographic work by up and coming graduates to new audiences across Australia and beyond, creating connections for them as they begin their artistic careers.


All applicants will have their submissions reviewed. Up to 20 finalists will be selected and have their work exhibited online in the 2026 GradFoto Exhibition. Judge Bindi Vora will award one cash prize of AUD $1000 to the overall winner. Another finalist will be awarded one cash prize of AUD $500 for the People’s Choice Award, as voted by the public throughout the 2026 GradFoto Exhibition.


Key Dates

Applications Open: Now
Applications Close: 22 November 2026, 11.59PM AEDT
Finalists Contacted: 10 December 2026
Online Exhibition and Winner Announced: 11 December 2026
People's Choice Winner Announced: 5 February 2027

 

Judge


Bindi Vora



Bindi Vora is an interdisciplinary artist, Senior Curator at Autograph, London and Associate Lecturer at UAL. Her curatorial practice explores postcolonial histories, diaspora and reinterpretation through photography and lens-based practices. She has curated several critically acclaimed exhibitions including Our Bodies Have Been Bridges (2026), Nhu Xuan Hua: Of Walking on Fire (2026) and I Still Dream of Lost Vocabularies (2025). Her writing has appeared in Another Country: British Documentary Photography Since 1945, The 80s – Photographing Britain, FOAM Magazine and the British Journal of Photography. She is part of the working group Climate & Colonialism at the Paul Mellon Centre.


Photograph by Zöe Maxwell.

 

Eligibility

The Ballarat International Foto Biennale GradFoto 2026 is open to all tertiary-level graduates from selected institutions aged 18 and over, living in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. The submitted series must:

  1. Be a series of photographic works that have been substantially produced by photographic means, including analogue and digital photography, collage and mixed media
  2. Be accompanied by an artistic rationale
  3. Be comprised of 1-20 images
  4. Be a finished project
  5. Have been executed and/or resolved within the graduate year leading up to the deadline for submissions, that is after 1 January 2026

Best of luck to all graduates!

 

Enter GradFoto 2026

Entry Terms and Conditions