Finalists for Sydney’s Art & About Australian life photo competition include some of the country’s top professionals, and also some gifted amateurs.
Twenty two images of Australian life from across the country have been selected as finalists in the Art & About Sydney photography competition from more than a thousand submissions.
Established photographers like Russell Shakespeare and Andrew Quilty have joined upcoming photographers from around the continent in submitting images portraying a wide range of aspects of Australian life.
Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said, “Last year we opened this competition to photographers across the country to give us their unique take on what Australian life means to them. The images submitted are thought-provoking and inspiring. Selecting these finalists has already been a challenge for our judges and to pick an overall winner will be no mean feat.”
Judges of the 2015 Australian Life competition are renowned photographer and previous Sydney Life competition winner, Tamara Dean, Australian Centre for Photography curator and exhibition programmer, Mark Feary, interior designer, author and lifestyle blogger, Jason Grant, and ARTHERE founder and Stills Gallery curator, Sandy Edwards.
Australian Life, formerly Sydney Life, began in 2002 and is the second largest photography prize in Australia. The $10,000 prize winner will be announced on Thursday, September 17, along with the winners of the children’s photography competition Little Sydney Lives.
Large-scale reproductions of the Australian Life finalists’ works will be on show along the St James walkway of Hyde Park from September 18 to October 11. For the second year the city has joined Tourism Australia to further expand Australian Life to include an Instagram competition. More than 30,000 images were submitted for the #australianlife Instagram competition last year.
Smartphone photographers can make an instant impression using the hashtag #australianlife and submit their images of Australian life for a chance to win $5,000. Twenty finalists will be selected by the panel and their works will be exhibited on the City of Sydney and Tourism Australia social media channels. The #australianlife Instagram competition closes on October 1 and the winner will be announced on October 9.
'Before the March', by Anna Sinclair, is one of the finalists in the Art & About Sydney Australian Life photo competition.
