MsTamara Voninski

BA (WKU) Masters of Film & Digital Image (USYD) PhD (USYD)

Dr Tamara Voninski is a photographer, filmmaker, and education focussed practice‑led researcher whose work explores the liminal space between still and moving image, the female gaze, and the intersections of memory, illness, and photographic intervention. She is an Associate Lecturer at Sydney College of the Arts at the University of Sydney, where she teaches filmmaking. From 2016–2026 she taught in the Master of Film and Screen Arts program at Sydney College of the Arts.

Tamara was awarded her PhD in 2020 at the University of Sydney for her practice‑led visual research The Glitzy Glamour Glitter Girls: Drag Queens, Visual Ethnography and the Cine Photo Essay. Her current research continues to integrate memoir, materiality, and expanded photographic practice, contributing to emerging conversations in creative‑practice research, visual pedagogy, and the ethics of lens-based practice.

A founding member of the Australian not‑for‑profit visual storytelling organistation Oculi (2000-present), Tamara was Oculi President (2023-2026). Before entering academia, she built a distinguished career in the media as a photojournalist and photo editor, contributing to leading newspapers and magazines and developing a reputation for narrative‑driven visual storytelling.

Her creative work has been widely exhibited in Australia and internationally, with projects shown in galleries, festivals, and curated exhibitions over three decades. Tamara’s photographs have received major international recognition, including awards from Pictures of the Year International (POYi), the Art Gallery of New South Wales residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, and the inaugural Alexia Foundation Photography for World Peace Grant. She has been a finalist in numerous national and international photography awards, most recently the Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize (2025 & 2026).

Her creative and academic work is united by a commitment to visual storytelling, experimental practice, and the role of creative research in shaping contemporary understandings of identity, embodiment, and lived experience.