Trent Mitchell has been named overall winner in Capture magazine’s 2011 Emerging Photographer of the Year awards.
The Emerging Photographer of the Year awards recognise outstanding work by young photographers across ten categories including Advertising, Architecture, Editorial, Fashion, Landscape, Photojournalism/documentary, Portrait, Sport, Travel and Wedding.
Entrants are asked to submit a portfolio of six images, which are then judged by Australia’s leading professional photographers in each field.
As well as being named overall winner, Mitchell, 31, also picked up the major awards in the Sport and Portrait categories and was runner-up in Documentary and Landscape.
“Winning Australian Emerging Photographer of The Year feels out of this world. It’s a complete career highlight,” says Mitchell.
“Last year I won the Sport category and placed in the top five in other divisions, I think landscape and documentary. I used these results to look at how I had been shooting, what people were seeing in my work and I promised myself to work harder in areas of my work that I was weak at.
“I honestly had a goal of achieving this result. It was a goal but by no means did I expect to win overall one bit. I set the goal and just simply worked my butt off, with no short cuts. Always accessing my last shoot and working on methods, lighting, personal approaches, equipment choices and who I would work with to better my previous efforts.”
The Australian Emerging Photographer of the Year, now in its second year, recognises, encourages and promotes talented young Australian photographers in the early stages of their careers.
Editor of Capture magazine, Marc Gafen, says the Australian Emerging Photographer of the Year, continues to grow in popularity as an effective vehicle to highlight and draw attention to Australia's newest generation of emerging professional photographers.
"This year, over 1500 images were submitted across the various categories and our panels of leading industry specialists were given a challenging task to help decide the category winners," he says. "Being recgnised by your peers, and those who have gone before you, is one of the highest accolades a photographer can receive. I anticipate that the 2012 competition will attract even fiercer competition."
The 2011 Emerging Photographer of the Year awards were open to photographers aged 35 or under (as at 1 January 2011) with less than four year’s full-time professional shooting experience.
Winners and runners up in the 2011 Emerging Photographer of the Year awards feature in the May/June issue of Capture magazine, which is on sale in newwsagents until the end of June.
2011 Emerging Photographer of the Year – winners and runners up:
Emerging Photographer of the Year 2011
Overall Winner: Trent Michell
Advertising
Winner: Melanie Tanusetiawan
Runner-up: Samuel Burns
Architecture
Winner: Gary Annett
Runner-up: Rory Gardiner
Editorial
Winner: Mike Read
Runner-up: Daniel Luxford
Fashion
Winner: Emmanuel Giraud
Runner-up: Lyra
Landscape
Winner: Rory Gardiner
Runner-up: Trent Mitchell
Photojournalism/documentary
Winner: Katrin Koenning
Runner-up: Trent Mitchell
Portrait
Winner: Trent Mitchell
Runner-up: Fiona Wolf
Sport
Winner: Trent Mitchell
Runner-up: Simon Gorges
Travel
Winner: Liz Loh-Taylor
Runner-up: Pete Longworth
Wedding
Winner: Elise Kapeller
Runner-up: Tim Harris
For a full list of winners and runners up, along with images and photographer profiles click here.
You’ll find more on the 2011 Emerging Photographer of the Year awards in the May/June issue of Capture magazine, on sale now!