Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2017 i Australian Photography

NEIL VINCENT WINNER 2016 NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR SWIMMING WITH WHALES OF TONGA If your photos aren't good enough, you're just not close enough. This quote simply doesn't apply to Noraville based photographer Neil Vincent and his amazing portfolio of whale calves frolicking near Tonga. "The calves always want to play but often the mothers don’t," he said. "However the mothers sometimes rest and allow the calves to play with the humans while they sleep about ten metres below. This is the best time, as the calves will swim in close, roll, stop and study their new playmates." JUDGES’ COMMENTS “With a mix of angles and light, Neil Vincent has achieved a dynamic portfolio of images. Each portrays gracefulness and a sense of peace, inviting the viewer to share…

TODD KENNEDY WINNER 2016 TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR DRONE TRAVELS Todd Kennedy's winning portfolio illustrates just how powerful the combination of a drone and stunning locations can be. Since picking up a drone in 2014, Kennedy has spent hours researching and travelling around Australia to create his images. By using a consistent 'straight down' perspective and strong geomeric lines, the series were a clear standout in the travel category. The secret to great drone imagery? “Keeping the drones charged and packed in backpacks, ready for the next adventure,” he says. JUDGES’ COMMENTS Aerial photography requires a good eye for light, pattern and shape and Todd Kennedy has demon-strated all these elements. Todd’s portfolio is very strong with standalone images that grab the view-er’s attention. His final selection shows the…

TAMARA DEAN Tamara Dean is an Australian photographic artist whose prac-tice explores the relationship be-tween humans and the natural world and the role ritual plays in our lives. Tamara has received numerous awards including a high commendation in the 2013 Moran Contem-porary Photographic Prize, and was a winner of the 2011 Olive Cotton Award, and 2009 Sydney Life: Art & About. Tamara was a member of the Oculi photo-graphic collective from 2001-2011. She is represented by Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney. tamaradean.com.au TOBIAS TITZ Based in Melbourne, Tobias Titz’s passion lies with portrait and documentary photogra-phy. He has collaborated exten-sively with remote indigenous communities and has work held in the Museum of Austra-lian Democracy, Canberra. Tobias is the recipient of the Head-On Photographic Portrait Prize and the Moran Contemporary Photography Prize.…

Last year saw a whole new trend in photography with the popularity of drones rising and the prices dropping. Not so long ago we viewed with wonder the aerial images from those who could afford to hire planes and pilots to fly them over spectacular locations. These images continued to take out international awards and we just resigned ourselves to it being something the amateur photographer couldn’t afford to do. While drones still can’t equal the quality of the aerial images from medium format cameras mounted in a plane with the doors off, we can get a sense of the landscape taken from above. Recently I was fortunate enough to take a flight over the Vivid Sydney light show in a helicopter with the doors removed. Of course I can’t…

ANDY SMITH WINNER 2016 LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR LANDSCAPES Like most passionate landscape photographers, it’s a love of nature that helped New South Wales’ Andy Smith gravitate to photography. He says that he always tries to convey a sense of drama in his images through the use of powerful foregrounds and moody skies, a key to his success in the hotly-contested landscape category. There’s a lovely sense of depth to his images, enhanced by great processing. JUDGES’ COMMENTS To me, Andy Smith stood out in a very strong field in Landscape this year. His steepened perspective style, using wide angle lenses and tonal values to separate the foreground and background, draws viewers deep into his images. His mastery of a classic approach to landscapes; his keen eye for detail;…

SHINAYA ROSE-HUMPHREYS WINNER 2016 JUNIOR PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR TURN ‘N BURN Sixteen-year-old Shinaya Rose-Humphrey's portfolio was taken at Queensland's Harlin Spring Spectacular, a Barrel Racing jackpot where she also competed. Her love of horses was the inspiration behind this action-packed series. By avoiding generic front on shots and shooting at a low-angle, she has brought the viewer right into the action. The red dust, the heat, and above all the energy of the riders and their animals made this a clear winner in the junior category. We reckon the thick-covering of dust she had on her and her camera was totally worth the effort. JUDGES’ COMMENTS Rodeos are a vibrant environment of movement and mayhem, humans and animals competing against the clock, and sometimes each other. What we do…

IT’S fair to say we see a lot of photographs here at Australian Photography. So when we decided to do a wrap up of the best images we’d seen in 2016, we didn’t realise just how challenging it would be. We saw some stunners last year, but we also saw some great images with even greater stories behind them, like Nick Melidonis’ amazing image from the Ladakh Valley in India (below), Greg Basco’s incredible wildlife images shot with flash (below right) and Chris Wiewiora’s inspiring landscapes from Tasmania’s Lake Oberon (above right). The photographers included in our ‘top 10’ of 2016 are: James Smart (‘Storm Chaser,’ AP September 2016); Dasha Riley (‘Photographer of the Year’ AP, February 2016); Adam Ferguson (‘War Story,’ AP, May 2016); Chris Wiewiora (Cover, AP, March…

HELEN WHITTLE OVERALL WINNER 2016 PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR WINNER 2016 PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR MY GIRL Helen Whittle’s portraits of her seven-year-old daughter Minnie are at first strikingly simple, yet contain a complexity of emotion that only comes from the closest of relationships between a photographer and their sitter. The runner-up in the Portrait category last year, Whittle’s images were a clear standout this year. Taken with natural light, this remarkable series captures the quiet, sensitive and intense side of Minnie’s personality, something Whittle says she rarely catches glimpses of. Picking up her DSLR after her first child was born in 2008, Whittle says she loves to capture her children, animals and nature and is inspired by natural and dramatic light. Her style is mainly black and white,…

YIANNIS YIASARIS WINNER 2016 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR MELBOURNE EXPOSED Born in Greece and having lived in Australia for the past 15 years, Yiannis Yiassaris is a self-taught street photographer. His images reveal smart observations of life in densely-populated urban spaces, with bold juxtaposition and challenging, dynamic angles marking them as the best black and white images this year. He describes his love of street photography coming from a natural curiosity about people going about their everyday life and a passion to tell their stories through his pictures. JUDGES’ COMMENTS The black and white work of Yiannis Yiasaris is a strong statement in the documentary/street photog-raphy genre. This genre has been gaining popular-ity in recent years due to the smaller, more power-ful cameras on offer but Yiannis’…

TIM BASKERVILLE WINNER 2016 PHOTO OF THE YEAR CAR TWHEEL KIDS The skin contrast, the sand stuck to their bodies, the triangular composition and the natural leading lines from the looks: it's the small details that make Tim Baskerville's shot the clear winner in our Photograph of the Year category. Baskerville says the image was taken on his last day in Madagascar, where he had been living and working for three months for an organisation called Mercy Ships. “Across from the port was a stretch of beach which was always full of life,” he said. “I came across three kids using a small mound of sand for a kicker. These little Malagasy ninjas blew me away with their skills, and I sat there for an hour mesmerised. After I had…