Prize winners in the Head On Photo Festival continue to push the boundaries with a diverse and provocative range of images announced at the festival opening in Sydney.
The winning photos were judged the outstanding images from more than 4000 entrants in the portrait, landscape, mobile and multimedia categories.
In the portrait category, Joe Wigdahl's work 'Family Loss' showed terminal brain illness sufferer Kirrilee Edwards being lovingly touched by friends and family while Richard Wainwright revealed another family tragedy in 'Life and a suitcase' with his image of Syrian refugees fleeing besieged Homs. Heather Tishowitscvh rounded out the portrait winners with 'Vicki', a woman revealing her chest in a scene of reflection after her mastectomy.
'Family Loss.' Image by Joe Wigdahl.
'Life and a suitcase.' Image by Richard Wainwright.
The landscape winners drew inspiration from scenery in Australia and overseas. Nick Hannes' image 'Cairo' of blank advertisement billboards along a deserted Egyptian highway conveyed a sense of desolation. Victor Stepanow's Burnt Forest was taken above charred woodland and contrasts darting flight of crows with the dead stillness below. Two active Indonesian volcanoes provided inspiration for Adrian Rohnfelder in his entry, Tengger massif. In a new category, NSW Landscapes, Peter Soleness recreated a lost Sydney waterway in 'Waterscape'.
'Cairo, Egypt.' Photo by Nick Hannes.
'Waterscape.' Image by Peter Solness.
The mobile entrants included scenes of innocent fun and personal tragedy. Clare Bardsley-Smith's 'Boys vs Wild' captured boys fearlessly jumping into a rockpool while Andrew Quilty's 'Burns Victim' depicted a young Afghan girl recovering in hospital after a burns accident. Laki Sedaris'shot of a desolated Victorian highway, Somewhere near Codrington, rounded out the categoy.
'Boys vs Wild.' Image by Clare Bardsley-Smith.
The emerging multimedia category attracted plenty of interest. Nina Ross's Fish self-portrait performance video explored learning a new language through filleting fish. The plight of Hong Kong's poor, forced to live in tiny cubicles, was captured by Kai Loeffelbein. Dalibor Talaji looked at a contrasting demographic problem in his multimedia study of young people deserting Croatian mountain villages.
The winning images and finalists will be on display during the Head On Festival, Australia's largest photography festival, whch runs until 8 June: Portrait winners and finalists at Paddington Reservoir Gardens, Oxford Street and Oatley Road, Paddington, Sydney; Landscape winners and finalists at Parliament House of NSW, 6 Macquarie Street, Sydney; Mobile winners and finalists at the Depot Gallery, 2 Danks Street, Waterloo; Multimedia winners and finalists at the Brenda May Gallery, 2 Danks Street, Waterloo.
Image by Joe Wigdahl
