May 17, 2014

Head On Photo Festival - And the Winners are...

Last night at the opening event for the fifth annual Head On Photo Festival Moshe Rosenzveig, Festival Director, announced the winners in the four prize categories for 2014 - Portrait, Landscape, Mobile and the newly introduced Multimedia. He told the capacity crowd at the Paddington Town Hall that the Head On Awards attracted more that 4000 entries this year from photographers around the world. Alison Stieven-Taylor was a judge for the Landscape Prize this year.

Head On Portrait Prize Winner - Tenth Anniversary
Joe Wigdahl: Family Loss

A portrait of Kirrilee Edwards before her death. Kirrilee suffered a catastrophic brain injury at 12 which required 24 hour care for several years. The image shows her being touched by her incredible parents and 6 brothers and sisters who have all taken part in caring for her.

Head On Landscape Prize Winner
Nick Hannes: Cairo, Egypt



Blank advertisement billboards along the highway in 6th of October City, a satellite city of Cairo, Egypt, 2012. From the series 'The Continuity of Man', a portrait of the Mediterranean region.

Head On Mobile Prize Winner
Clare Bardsley-Smith: Boy vs Wild
Taken during a large storm at Coogee Beach. The boys were fearless, braving the huge waves and diving off one of the large rocks into the surrounding rock pool. 

This year the Festival's major sponsor Olympus provided winners with an impressive range of prizes. Alison Stieven-Taylor has been trialling the O-MD E-M1 and it's fantastic. Light-weight, fast, quiet and incredibly functional, this camera is a winner.

Check out the what the winner of the Head On Portrait Prize receives this year as an example of the terrific prize package: First prize valued at over $10,000 and includes $5,000 cash and a great Olympus Camera Kit worth $4,396 (Olympus OM-D E-M1 body with 12-40mm f2.8 lens, 45mm f1.8 lens, 45mm f1.8 lens, 75mm f1.8 lens), 1 Year subscription to Adobe Creative Suite worth $600 and more!

You can see the finalists in each category at the exhibitions, details below:

Head On Portrait Prize – 40 Finalists
Until 8 June
Paddington Reservoir
251-255 Oxford Street
Paddington

Second Prize Winner:
Richard Wainwright: Life and a suitcase

“We fled Syria across the border into Jordan and could only carry this suitcase with a few clothes and food for the baby. It was cold and dangerous, I cannot explain how awful it’s been for the children” Zeena, 26 and her family struggle to survive in Amman after fleeing Homs following the destruction of their house and bakery.

Third Prize Winner:
Heather Tichowitsch: Vicki 

Gone is my full ample cleavage pride and joy which I once felt defined my womanhood. I now realise I am every bit as much a woman post mastectomy. The new me may be an improvement, but I mourn what I lost, my past identity, what I was, whilst still rejoicing in what I am now.

Head On Landscape Prize – 40 Finalists
Until 8 June
NSW Parliament House, Fountain Court Gallery
6 Macquarie Street
Sydney

Second Prize Winner:
Victor Stepanow: Burnet Forrest


Here, from above, we see a gaggle of crows above a burnt forest, they are as black as the scorched trees below, burnished feathers flickering in the sunlight, their darting movements contrasting with the dead stillness below. Vast landscapes of beautiful, crisp desolation, a view that both delights the eye, and scars the soul.

Third Prize Winner:
Adrian Rohnfelder: Tengger massif in Indonesia


Tengger massif in Indonesia in early morning light with active volcanoes Mount Bromo and Mount Semeru.

NSW Landscape Award Winner:
Peter Solness; Waterscape #2, Reservoir No.2, Centennial Park NSW 2013


I wanted to re-imagine the lost waterways, so I got my light-painting tools to work. In this image, water is being released from the top of the historic Centennial Park No. 2 Reservoir, which was built in 1925 and holds 90 megalitres of water. After 89 years of incarceration these waters now run free!

Head On Mobile Prize – Finalists
Until 7 June
Depot II Gallery
2 Danks Street
Waterloo

Second Prize Winner: 
Andrew Quilty: Burns Victim


In Boost Hospital (run by Medicines Sans Frontiers) in the provincial capital of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, a young girl lies in an observation room after being burnt in an accident with an oil lamp. Heat blankets are used to protect the body from cooling down to dangerously low temperatures as it attempts to deal with the burns.

Third Prize Winner:
Laki Sedaris: Somewhere near Codrington



Head On Multimedia Prize – Finalists
Until 7 June
Brenda May Gallery
2 Danks Street
Waterloo
(No images were available at time of publishing)

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