Mia PIGNATARO: Play it as it lays

2026 MAPh Photography Fair

Mia PIGNATARO
Play it as it lays 2025
pigment ink-jet print
42.0 x 59.4 cm
collection of the artist
courtesy of the artist

This artwork was a finalist in our annual TOPshots competition and exhibition held in the MAPh Atrium Gallery, 11 March – 4 May 2026.

TOPshots is an annual celebration of emerging photo-media artists selected from a large pool of entries. 2026 marks the 18th anniversary of this award and exhibition, which showcases exceptional photographic work produced by students who have completed the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) subjects of Art Making and Exhibiting, Art Creative Practice and Media, as well as the International Baccalaureate (IB) subject of Visual Arts and the Vocational Education and Training (VET) subject of Visual Arts.

Artist statement

Play It as It Lays was created on Wurundjeri land, inside a house that feels half-forgotten; peeling paint, cracked walls, the scent of rain and old smoke still lingering. In this fractured space, I placed friends of mine, girls caught between adolescence and adulthood. They wait, they wander, they look both at home and out of place. Sometimes they appear uncertain,
sometimes luminous, always suspended in that restless space between fragility and resilience. 

These photographs are not staged or polished; they reveal a different kind of beauty raw, unguarded, and easily missed. I want viewers to experience the same pause I did: the recognition that even in neglected places, and in fleeting expressions, something quietly extraordinary can emerge.