International Color Awards

A Few New ‘Award Updates’ …

A few nice recognitions over the past few weeks … 🙂

Firstly … so nice to once again be selected as a Finalist in the Perth Centre for Photography’s ‘IRIS’ portrait awards …  a biennial award that my work has now been selected for the third time in a row. The actual finalist works chosen this time are still a necessary secret … but all will be revealed when the exhibition of finalist and winners works opens at PCP’s Perth gallery on September 1st. Fortunately I will be in Perth at that time en route back from the UK.

PCP describes the ‘IRIS’ awards so … “The IRIS Award celebrates excellence in portraiture photography, revealing portraits that are unique, original and conceptually stimulating. IRIS has been running for 18 years, with the inaugural exhibition held back in 2003”.

I missed seeing my last finalist work on the ‘IRIS” exhibition wall in 2021 …“Tears for George Floyd … 8 Minutes and 46 Seconds” …  due to the Covid-19 pandemic … so I’m looking forward to being there for this one.

Arguably the one of the nicest surprises was the news that my portrait of the now sadly departed 100 year old Alf ‘Popeye’ Neal OAM entitled “100 Years & 3 Weeks” was selected in the ‘Best 25’ of the Dohdo International photography magazines “Portrait – Best Photographers of 2023” collection. The pic of Alf is now nicely included in the large format hard cover year book “Portrait” (see top image below) and will also be exhibited in an online ‘Best 25’ collection for the next year. 

(The same image of Alf was earlier this year also selected as the Winner of the ‘People’ category of the 19th International Pollux Awards.)

In the 16th International Color Awards announced recently my works were selected as ‘Honourable Mentions’ in both the ‘Portrait’ category (with image “Covid Vax & Ice Cream”) and the ‘Children of the World’ category (with image “Veronica – Where Home Brew Kills”) … whilst my image “Scooter” also made the finalist cut in ‘Portrait’. See the trio of images below. All three have been acknowledged in previous awards.

Lastly in ‘new’ award dispatches … “Covid Vax & Ice Cream” again resonated when it was selected as a finalist in the ‘People’ category of the 2023 ‘ReFocus Colour Awards‘.

A pleasant few weeks … 🙂

Images © Brian Cassey

“Mother Africa” in International Photography Awards (IPA) …

Must admit … there was a lot of emotion entailed in making this image “Mother Africa”. Without getting too personal my captivating subject Aurora Coulter was heavily invested in the subject, history and experience of making this work. Aurora … normally vibrant and ebullient … dug deep into past personal experiences to channel the emotional plight of her African American forebears over the centuries. There were tears …

So … I’m delighted as much for Aurora as for myself that this work has been recognised several times around the planet … the latest being last weeks notification of an “Honourable Mention” in the ‘Portrait’ section of the 2022 International Photography Awards (IPA).

Over the last few months “Mother Africa” … made in January this year in a friends shed studio (Thanks Marc) … has also catalogued other mentions in … the 2022 Pollux Awards (Portrait – Honourable Mention), the Moscow International Foto Awards (People Culture – Bronze Award), the 2022 International Portrait Photographer of the Year (Published in IPPOTY Top 101 Portraits selection and book), the 2022 Percival Photographic Prize (Townsville – Finalist) and the 15th International Colour Awards (Portrait – Finalist).

Even later news (from just last eve) … “Mother Africa” will be one of the thirty works exhibited in an inaugural portraiture exhibition at the Crate 59 Gallery in Cairns.

“The Burning Cane Portrait Exhibition” (for portraiture in any medium made this year by Queensland artists) will open on the 4th of November and run for three weeks. “Mother Africa” will be there (very) large on the walls from the celebratory opening event … which, sadly, I will miss as I’ll be at the launch of the 2022 Head On Photo Festival in Sydney. More on both of these events at a later date.

Image © Brian Cassey (and massive Thanks again Aurora !)

‘International Color Awards’ … X Four …

Great to see four of my images recognised in the 14th Edition of the ‘International Color Awards’ announced recently.

Three times ‘Honorable Mentions’ in … (from top) … ‘Photojournalism’ for “8 Minutes and 46 Seconds” … ‘Children of the World’ for “The Kids Of Ali Curung” …  and ‘Portrait’ for “Kate – Waiting For Her New Breasts”. The image “Bonn Marie – Asking The Question” (bottom) had to settle for Finalist Nominee in ‘Fine Art’.

It was the first accolades for the first two pics … “8 Minutes and 46 Seconds” – during a ‘Black Lives Matter’ protest in Cairns, US citizen Hermela Bealfan sheds tears as she lies prostrate on the ground for the 8 minutes and 46 seconds that it took police officer Derek Chauvin to kill George Floyd by kneeling on his neck in Minneapolis … and “The Kids of Ali Curung” – a kids welcome to the remote Northern Territory indigenous township of Ali Curung.

The portraits of ‘Kate’ and ‘Bonn’ are better known as they have been mentioned several times in earlier awards … see the ‘Award’ page listings here … https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/awards/

Gotta be happy with that …

Images © Brian Cassey

14th International Color Awards - Honorable Mention - Photojournalism - "8 Minutes and 46 Seconds" by Brian Cassey

14th International Color Awards - Honorable Mention - Children of the World - "The Kids of Ali Curung" by Brian Cassey

14th International Color Awards - Honorable Mention - Portrait - "Kate - Waiting For Her New Breasts" by Brian Cassey

14th International Color Awards - Finalist Nominee - Fine Art - "Bonn Marie - Asking the Question" by Brian Cassey

12th International Color Awards …

Just a little pat on the back for the pic I made … ‘Tomotaro on the Block’ … (below) … of Japanese amputee swimmer Tomotaro Nakamura competing at the Pan Pacific Para Games in Cairns last year. The image received an ‘Honorary Mention’ in the ‘Sport’ category of the 12th edition of the ‘International Color Awards’, which was announced during a two and a half hour live online ‘Photoshow’ this morning. (and no … I didn’t watch it all.)

‘Tomotaro on the Block’ also recently won a ‘Silver’ award at the 2018 Tokyo International Foto Awards.

The ‘Sport’ category was won by UK photographer Ian Macnicol with a ‘not entirely unachieved before’ swimming image … ‘Honey Osrin’. His image also won Ian the overall title of ‘Photographer of the Year’.

The only other Aussie based photographer to get a mention in ‘Sport’ was adventure photographer Aidan Williams for his dramatic National Geographic published image made in Portugal … ‘Freedom’.

A second image … my pic from Papua New Guinea entitled “Victim of Sorcery – Dorcas” … was selected as a ‘Nominee’ (Finalist) in the ‘Photojournalism’ category of the Awards.

The Awards attracted over seven thousand entries from photographers based in seventy nine countries around the planet.

Below … ‘Tomotaro on the Block’ …  image © Brian Cassey

 

'Tomotaro on the Block' - image by Brian Cassey - winner 'Honorary Mention' 2019 12th Edition 'International Color Awards' 'Sport' category - amputee swimmer Tomotaro Nakamura 

‘Carol’ Does it Again …

Will have to get on the ‘blower’ again to voice yet another sincere vote of ‘Thanks’ to my amazin’ portrait subject Carol Mayer.

This morning (Sunday), during a live awards streaming event (which I didn’t bother to watch), it was announced that my “The Skin I’m In- II” image of burns survivor Carol  … took out “3rd Place – Honor of Distinction” in the Portrait category of the huge 2018 “International Color Awards” (11th Annual Edition).

There were a host of great portraits made by some very accomplished photographers selected as ‘Nominees’ in the ‘Portrait’ section  … so it was very rewarding to be amongst the top three ‘Honorees’.  (Although I wish they would learn to spell ‘Honour’ and ‘Honourees’ … and ‘Colour’ … correctly.) Rounding out the top three were portraits by winner Boy Surminski from The Netherlands and second placed Azin Haghighi from Iran.  

“The Skin I’m In – II’ has also been recognised by the 2017 ‘National Photographic Portrait Prize’ and several others.

… ‘uge Thanks’ once again Carol …

Image © Brian Cassey

International Color Awards - Honor of Distinction - Portraits - "The Skin I'm In - II" by Brian Cassey

10th International Color Awards …

Nice to receive some news from the 10th International Color Awards last week … and it appears that my work had some success. The awards are an annual event showcasing the best of the Planet’s color (sic) photography.

Abdullatif did it again … with the image I made of the Iraqi refugee battered in a Manus Island PNG police cell – “Beaten Asylum Seeker” – taking out ‘3rd Place – Honor of Distinction’ in the ‘Photojournalism’ category. Images by UK’s Filip Warwick (‘Over the Border’) and USA’s Sebastian Meyer (‘Newroz in Kurdistan’) were awarded first and second prize.

Also pleased to note a smattering of other acknowledgements in the list as well … one of my images of burns survivor Carol Mayer (‘The Skin I’m In’) was honoured with an ‘Honorable Mention’ in the ‘Portrait’ category … whilst an image I made of a large turtle landed at Lorengau, Manus Island (‘Turtle, Manus Island’) was selected as a nominated ‘Finalist’ in the ‘Photojournalism’ category AND the ‘Wildlife’ category.

The announcement of winners and nominees and their works was made in a three and a half hour live broadcast on the internet … but I missed that bit.

My works mentioned are shown below … images © Brian Cassey

10th International Color Awards - Portraits - Honorable Mention - 'The Skin I'm In' by Brian Cassey

10th International Color Awards - Finalist - Photojournalism & Wildlife - 'Turtle Manus Island' by Brian Cassey

 

Julie … “Disko Meri” … Found ! …

I mentioned in a post back in April – “Disko Meri Does It Again” – that I had been so far unable to let my Papua New Guinea bar girl subject Julie know about the success of her portrait in various photography events and awards around the planet over the last couple of years … Sydney (Head On Portrait Prize) and Cairns (QMMA Awards) Australia, New York City (Photoville 2015), Moscow (MIFA), Hyderabad India (Head On) and the ‘International Color Awards’ to name but a few.

I made the image at the Diamond Club in a not too salubrious part of Port Moresby. The club does not have a telephone or internet presence and it was impossible to contact her.

So … during a nights stopover in Port Moresby on my way to Manus Island a few weeks ago I dropped into the Diamond Club armed with a print and accompanied by PNG friends Margo and Raymond. At first it seemed that Julie would never know as we were told she no longer works at Diamonds. Fortunately someone found her brother in law who was in the club that eve and he offered to jump in a taxi (at our expense) and go and pick her up.

About an hour later a very bemused and rattled Julie arrived and was presented with a large print and told of her World wide fame. Julie explained that she was no longer working and was now a (single) mother of twins!

In the two years since I made the image Julie had changed from a confident up front bar girl into a quieter softer more lissome young mother of two baby boys. She said she was going to give the print to her mum …

Below is a pic © Raymond Nugent (Thanks Raymond) … of Julie in the Diamond Club with her print.

Disko Meri - Julie - Diamond Club - PNG - Print - Brian Cassey

 

“Disko Meri” Does It Again …

“Disko Meri” – an image I made of nightclub bar girl Julie in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea – has been recognised yet again, taking out an “Honourable Mention” in the ‘Portrait’ category of the prestigious “9th International Color Awards”.

The planet wide annual photography awards bill themselves as “The World’s most watched photo show” and all winners were announced in a four and a half hour live streaming online event. Must admit I missed that bit …

“Disko Meri” has received quite a bit of attention over the past year or so … and previously was recognised in the ‘Head On Portrait Prize’, the ‘Moscow International Foto Awards’ (MIFA) and the ‘Queensland Multi Media Awards’.

Sadly … I have not been able to thank my subject Julie personally so far. The bar where she works in Port Moresby does not have either a phone number or internet presence. I intend on my next visit to Port Moresby to make it a priority to visit her again at the ‘Diamond Club’ to thank her and present her with a print … the very least I can do.

Below … and at the risk of boring you with it again … is the portrait of Julie – “Disko Meri”

Image © Brian Cassey

"DISKO MERI - PNG Bar Girl" - Honorable Mention 9th International Color Awards - Brian Cassey