Fiona Bowring, Conquer the mountain: an auto-portrait (PEOPLE & PORTRAIT 2026)

Last year my brother Peter decided to die. Terminally ill, he’d had enough, and gave us fair warning. I went to stay with him, travelling in my flower-stickered Honda Jazz. I packed my ‘Detour’ traffic cone suit – an impulse, op shop buy. I wore it, and he photographed it, and we both laughed a lot. Peter encouraged me to drive Bathurst’s Mt Panorama in that same daisy-decked car. it’s not my thing, but I went along with it. With my tripod, self-timer, a sprint/waddle and some self-consciousness, I made this portrait. As promised, I remember Peter now when I press the shutter.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.