Queensland's Krystle Wright wins Red Bull Illume photo comp
Australian photographer Krystle Wright
Wright's shot of climber Angela VanWiemeersch illuminated in a crack, deep within Long Canyon, Utah, United States convinced the judging panel of more than 50 photographers. It also won the Innovation by MPB category.
Category Winner & Overall Winner, Krystle Wright. "One day as I was driving to my local crag, an idea hit me like a lightning bolt where I conjured the concept of illuminating a crack from within on an iconic trad climb. After all, the crack is the feature of trad climbing and I wanted to search out the perfect fissure. Moab UT has always brought me back time and time again and teaming up with Angela VanWiemeersch, we found 'Seventh Serpent' in Long Canyon. As per usual, my timing is atrocious and a heat wave had descended onto Moab which meant we only had a few precious shaded hours in the afternoon to rig the lights into the crack. I'll always be a nervous wreck in these situations but when I raced back across the canyon to set up my position to capture, what a spectacular feeling it was to witness the crack come alive as the darkness enveloped around us." © Krystle Wright / Red Bull Illume Originally from Queensland, Wright is an adventure photographer, cinematographer, and director, who has specialised in adventure sports for many years. She was previously a category finalist in 2013 and has made the top 25 in 2013 and 2019.
Wright described the win as 'incredible'.
"I wanted to earn my place in this industry and my work to get recognised. Red Bull Illume is the only platform that truly recognises what we do," she said.
In addition to Wright, Melbourne photographer Ted Grambeau also won the 'Energy' category of the competition, with his image of James 'Jimmy' McKean captured at Shipstern Bluff, Tasmania.
Energy Category Winner, Ted Grambeau. "One of the most extreme days at the incredibly challenging Shipstern Bluff on a remote stretch of coast in Tasmania Australia. The irregular bathymetry creates steps in the wave that adds to the unpredictably and creates a spectacular platform at the base of passive imposing sea cliffs. Local legend Jimmy McKean navigates a series of irregular steps in the face of a giant southern ocean swell. The steps are somewhat unpredictable and add to the precarious nature of one of the world’s most spectacular and dangerous waves." © Ted Grambeau / Red Bull Illume Winning images were selected blind by an international 52-member jury who judged the shots without any information about the image, or the photographer.
An exhibition of the winning images will run in Europe over the next few months. You can see the other category winners in the still image categories below.
RAW Category Winner, Léo Grosgurin. "This was for me one of the most difficult shots to take. In a windy week, a lot of larch in the valley were losing their thorns. So we were looking for the most beautiful larch around Briançon in France, and fortunately came across this magnificent tree with the waterfalls as a backdrop. Everything was perfect. We came in the morning to create a jump, then had to find a yellow sweater for Arthur that would perfectly match the tree! I hooked a flash on a drone and had it flown over the jump and the tree, the drone fell several times due to the wind and the flash weight. Our shot window was very short, I absolutely wanted to have the waterfalls in the background while having the tree and Arthur well lit by the flash. A single test allowed us to have all the conditions united in a single perfect shot." © Léo Grosgurin / Red Bull Illume. Emerging with Canon Category winner, Gonzalo Robert Parraguez. "I think this is one of my favorite photos as it included a bit of everything. To get to the waterfall you had to drive two hours, walk ten minutes and then to take this photo I had to do a 15 meter rappel as the waterfall is in a deep canyon. To get in the position I wanted, the only way to get there was to rappel in. With Kilian, we have been filming and looking for places for a couple of years now and continuing to do these missions with him is one of my favorite things to do." © Gonzalo Robert Parraguez / Red Bull Illume Playground by Radiant Photo Category Winner, Jb Liautard. "We were shooting for a week around Cusco with the whole video team but when they left, we changed my flight to come to this place, I had to wait a couple more days at the hotel as Kilian had a race at the end of the week. The minute after he crossed the finish line, we took a car and drove 12 hours on mountain roads from 6PM to 6AM. We arrived at the hotel in the morning and after a quick nap, we were headed to the highest dune in the world. We only had one evening and one morning there as our plane was leaving from Lima the next day. We had to have good weather and all conditions come together. I was suffering from a knee injury and had to climb up the 500m high dune with almost just one leg. I flew my drone once up there and the view was absolutely breathtaking." © Jb Liautard / Red Bull Illume Photos of Instagram Category Winner, Yhabril. After enjoying the recent snowfall in the resort, we usually look for places outside to build kickers and take advantage of the best moments of light for the shoots. The weather this day was very bad and it seemed that we were not going to be able to do anything, but after midday the clouds began to move and the friends' chat began to heat up, so we decided to go up and build. We arrived a little late and the sky closed again so we decided to do the job and leave it done for the next day, with the landing untouched. We were in darkness with everything almost finished when an evening glow began to enter in the distance. Alejan was working on the speed check and I was doing light tests with the flashes. It was an all or nothing bet to one try." © Yhabril / Red Bull Illume Masterpiece by Sölden category winner, Lorenz Holder. "La Muralla Roja is a huge apartment complex in the Spanish town Calp and was built by Ricardo Bofill in 1969. This building is just a miracle itself – there are stairs, small corridors, platforms and concrete walls everywhere and it’s very easy to lose orientation. The building is divided in different zones that are all colored differently in pastel tones, but work together beautifully. Just walking through this masterpiece is breathtaking and you feel instantly transferred into a different world. For this shot, I wanted to show the variety of pastel colors and different structures and compose this with an BMX-trick of Senad with the right balance of architecture and action sports. We had to wait a little bit, till the sun was at the right place, to illuminate all the scene pretty equally, so the colors of the building would show its full potential without having shadows within the image." © Lorenz Holder / Red Bull Illume Creative Category Winner, Delphin Montessuit. "L’Usine is a dry-tooling cave situated over an old factory. On a Sunday after fun-filled night out with Virgile Devin and friends in Grenoble we decided to go for a climb at this spot. That's when I got to shoot Virgile hooked to the roof of the cave, the bright light coming from the outside of the cave on the original shot gave me the idea of a high contrast minimalist collage. To create this image, I decided to push the boundaries of my creativity by merging my photography editing skills with modern technological advancements. I designed the scene using a digitally generated block of ice. By choosing black and white, I was able to express my love for simplicity and contrast, while recalling the greatness of the mountain with an oversized ice element." © Delphin Montessuit / Red Bull Illume. Lifestyle by COOPH category winner, Ross Taylor. "I was out in Morocco on a surfing holiday with friends, which luckily happened to coincide with the first really good swell of the season slamming into the coast. The night before there was a real buzz of anticipation around the town, with everyone excitedly discussing if the swell was going to live up to expectation. The next morning, I eagerly pitched up to the carpark before sunrise and, through the twilight and mist, saw perfect peeling faces thundering down the point. A crowd of eager challengers quickly gathered readying themselves to do battle with what Mother Ocean was going to throw at them that day. When this retro ride overladen with all manner of surf craft pulled up I knew it was a composition too good to pass up." © Ross Taylor / Red Bull Illume.
