This week I was honoured to be named the 2015 AIPP Queensland Epson Professional Illustrative Photographer of the Year. I can’t tell you what a massive thing this is for me. To be named a finalist with the likes of Charmaine Heyer (four time winner of the Australian Illustrative Photographer of the Year) and the brilliant Foroogh Yavari is pretty exciting in itself, and more than enough for me.
One of the things that makes this so special to me is standing shoulder to shoulder in that group of amazing artists. These are masters of their craft; most of them have received similar awards before. I’ve pored over their images in the past, gone to a few of them for advice and coaching, and listened to them speak at events. Very cool to be in a line with them.
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Thank You’s
First, a big thank you to the people that let me tell their stories and interpret them in an image. Thank you for trusting me.
Every one of these images was a team effort, and I really appreciate the talent and enthusiasm of everyone involved. That includes the subjects, the people that generously loaned locations, and the people that used their experienced eye to help me tune the images prior to the awards. Big thanks to Tristam Evison of EV Photo for his expertise with printing and papers. Tristam took time and cared for each image, and helped them to be the best they could be.
Thank You to Foto Frenzy for sponsoring the Illustrative category!
Biggest thank you is to the love of my life, my beautiful Wanda. She’s very understanding when I disappear in to an edit for a long time, but she’s way way more than that. She helps with propping, set dressing, wardrobe, logistics… she knows just what music to play at the right moment to get the right reaction out of a subject… she helps to focus ideas and get the best out of them. We collaborate a lot on normal client stuff, shooting and editing together, and it’s very cool to share all of these experiences with her. So thank you sweetie, there’s no one else I’d rather be on this ride with.
Images
Normally, people aren’t very keen on sharing the images they’ve entered in state awards. Once the state bit is done, you take them, apply feedback based on what you learned, and the next version of the image emerges at the national level. They haven’t been shared on social media etc, so images are a pleasant surprise for the judges. But… as a category winner, my images went up on the AIPP blog the next day, so the cat is out of the bag. So… here they are! These are my four illustrative images, along with my two portrait images and two landscape images. Some of these will change between now and the APPAs in October, where I’ll be entering hopefully what they find to be four strong images. There are a few firsts here for me: First gold, first portfolio with every image judged as award standard, and of course first win of a major category.
See all the winning images – online or in person!
If you’d like to see all of the winner’s images, visit the AIPP Queensland page, there’s some brilliant stuff there. Even better, if you’d like to see the images up-close and in person, Foto Frenzy is holding an exhibition of category winners. In an Australian first, the gallery will be showing the actual prints that were judged – no reprinting! Opening night is Thursday 9 April, and the exhibition runs until Friday April 24. Details at the Eventzilla page. Entry is free!
Random weird things:
- I haven’t seen my first name mistakenly spelled with a ‘C’ for days. That’s weird.
- It is totally worth tracking down a judge after judging if you want to know more about what they saw (or didn’t see) in your print.
- If you want to video a speech, it’s best to push the record button at the start of the speech, rather than the end. 😉
- One of the prints has resonated with nearly everyone that sees it. It inspires a really strong reaction in most people. Wow, that feels good.
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Thank you to Stephen Jones and Ralph Brown for the images from the QPPA dinner!
