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

‘Gold’ X Two in Tokyo …

Early Chrissy present from Tokyo …

It was only a week ago that I shared the news on here of two successes in the Budapest International Foto Awards (BIFA) … a Gold Award for “8 Minutes & 46 Seconds – Tears For George Floyd” in Editorial and a Silver Award for “The Yarrick Family Of Kunhanhaa” in People.

Well … seems Santa has come a day or two early as I just received the news that these two images have gone one better in the Tokyo International Foto Awards (TIFA) with both images winning ‘Gold’ !

So … rather than bashing out a similar post to the one a week ago I’ve copied it below … and updated it a bit 🙂

Here goes … 🙂

More news … this time from Hungary & Tokyo …

… these two images (below) have done it yet again! Announced this week … TWO Gold Awards in the 2021 Tokyo International Foto Awards (TIFA) for both “8 Minutes & 46 Seconds – Tears For George Floyd” (in Editoria) and “The Yarrick Family Of Kunhanhaa” (in People) … and a few days earlier … a Gold award in the 2021 Budapest International Foto Awards (BIFA) ‘Editorial’ for “8 Minutes & 46 Seconds – Tears For George Floyd”… and a Silver in ‘People’ for “The Yarrick Family of Kunhanhaa”.

Chuffed with that …

These two pics have been good to me … and have amassed a tidy number of other recognitions over the past year or so.

Previous successes for these two images may be found at these pages … https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog/2021/11/more-for-the-awards-page/, https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog/2021/10/nikon-walkley-portrait-prize-3-yes/, https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog/2021/10/mornington-essay-wins-at-clarions/, https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog/2021/09/tears-at-the-perth-iris-awards/, https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog/2021/08/mornington-clarion-media-awards-finalist/, https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog/2021/07/silver-and-bronze-in-moscow-international/, https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog/2021/04/international-color-awards/https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog/2021/05/carol-amongst-big-handful-at-16th-international-pollux-awards/,

Images © Brian Cassey

Tokyo International Foto Awards (TIFA) - WINNER - GOLD Awards X 2 - Editorial - "8 Minutes & 46 Seconds - Tears For George Floyd" ... & ... People, Family - "The Yarrick Family of Kunhanhaa" - by Brian Cassey

Tokyo International Foto Awards (TIFA) - WINNER - GOLD Awards X 2 - Editorial - "8 Minutes & 46 Seconds - Tears For George Floyd" ... & ... People, Family - "The Yarrick Family of Kunhanhaa" by Brian Cassey

‘Tears’ At The Perth IRIS Awards …

The ‘IRIS’ awards exhibition … an International biennial art prize acknowledging outstanding contemporary portraiture … opened in Perth on Friday eve at the Perth Centre for Photography Gallery. So pleased to see my ‘Finalist’ selected image “Tears for George Floyd … 8 Minutes and 46 Seconds” (top below) make it’s ‘on the wall’ debut in the fantastic exhibition. (Image © Brian Cassey @brian_cassey)

The award prides itself for “selecting revealing portraits that are unique, original and conceptually stimulating”.

Normally I’d be there at the opening … but no way could I travel early to endure a costly 14 day quarantine on top of airfares etc etc. 

The exhibition works were in the main, indeed, unique in many ways … a great exhibition to be part of.

As I couldn’t attend (thanks to covid), loverly Perth based photographer Andrea Vose very, very kindly sent me pics from the opening eve (below) illustrating my work as it sat on the exhibition walls. Thank You heaps Andrea !!

Images below … “Tears for George Floyd … 8 Minutes and 46 Seconds” © Brian Cassey … Images at Perth Centre for Photography Gallery © Andrea Vose

IRIS Award - for Contemporary Photographic Portraiture, Perth - 'Finalist' - 'Tears for George Floyd ... 8 Minutes and 46 Seconds' by Brian Cassey

IRIS Award - for Contemporary Photographic Portraiture, Perth - 'Finalist' - 'Tears for George Floyd ... 8 Minutes and 46 Seconds' by Brian Cassey

IRIS Award - for Contemporary Photographic Portraiture, Perth - 'Finalist' - 'Tears for George Floyd ... 8 Minutes and 46 Seconds' by Brian Cassey

 

Happenings in Perth, India … and the UK …

A lot of ‘goings on’ recently with exhibition openings in Perth, a rewarding ‘road trip’ in India, a bit of recognition from ‘Budapest’ … and an image on the walls at the Royal Photographic Society in England.

Travelled to Perth (and Fremantle) last month for two exhibition openings at two events … the ‘Fremantle International Portrait Prize’ (FIPP) one week and the ‘IRIS Portrait Awards’ at the Perth Centre for Photography the next.

Satisfyingly, both included personal works  … ‘Tomotaro on the Block’ and ‘Generations- Aurukun’ in the ‘FIPP’ … and just ‘Generations – Aurukun’ in the ‘IRIS’. Both great opening eves … first time for me in the ‘IRIS’ collection, but third time in the mix for the ‘FIPP’. Nice also to have a good opportunity to spend a little time in the West and catch up with photographer colleagues Richard Wainwright, Roger Garwood, Johannes Reinhart, Peter Ramshaw and Justin Ma… and also sparkling Nikon rep Julie Kimpton.

From Perth it was four flights to Mumbai (including a quick overnight stopover in Little India Singapore) where I met up with friend and former photo editor at the Indian Express, director of Solaris Images … and all round good bloke Srienivas Akella. ‘Srini’ had organised flights for the two of us to Raipur in the state of Chhattisgarh where I had identified one story in particular that I was keen to work on.

Srini has extensive knowledge of his home country and had also searched out a few other possible pic stories to fill any ‘blanks’ in covering my main objective. As it turned out we managed three stories over six days … my main story (which stretched over three days and involved twenty four hours of driving through Chhattisgarh – all will be revealed when the story and pics are placed and published) … pics of two (apparently of five) of the surviving full body tattooed ‘Ramnami’ – a low caste sect that once endured having the name of their god Rama etched over their entire bodies … and a continuation of my earlier ‘Typewriter Wallahs’ pic essay (this time in the city of Raipur) on the men (and woman) of India who persist in working with (and repairing) ancient manual typewriters.

The weeks work culminated back in Mumbai on a big Diwali celebration night of fireworks, colour and food with Srini, his family and his very pleasant community. Thanks Srini !

Also received great news … an email from ‘Portrait Salon’ stating … “Dear Brian, We are delighted to tell you that our judge, Peter Dench, has selected the attached image (‘Tomotaro on the Block’ … yeah that one again) to be included in this year’s Portrait Salon selection. This year, ‘Portrait Salon’ will be exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society in Bristol, from 21 – 28 November. It will then travel up to Harrogate to be part of the Photo North Festival, from 30 November – 2 December. The images will be presented both as a slideshow, and in print.”

Of course … I am stoked …

UK based ‘Portrait Salon’ is a sort of a ‘Salon des Refusés’ and solicits work that doesn’t make the winners cut of the monumental National Portrait Gallery (London) ‘Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize’ each year. Now in it’s 9th annual edition ‘Portrait Salon’ arguably shows more interesting work than the ‘Taylor Wessing’.

‘Tomotaro’ certainly has been good for me … as well as the ‘Portrait Salon’ and ‘FIPP’ mentioned above, it has also been recognised in the Tokyo International Foto Awards (TIFA), the Moscow International Foto Awards (MIFA), The Australian Photography Awards (APA) and the 12th International Color Awards.

Not far behind, ‘Generations – Aurukun’ has featured in the ‘IRIS’ and ‘FIPP’ mentioned and also the 2019 Portrait of Humanity and The Australian Photography Awards (APA).

Also at the end of October both of these images were announced ‘Winners’ in their respective categories (Editorial Sports and People) in the inaugural 2019 Budapest International Foto Awards (BIFA). Nice news to arrive home in Cairns to …

Images below © Brian Cassey … as follows from top … ‘Ramnami’ Maherttar Ram Tandon at his home in Churella Village, Chhattisgarh, India. Maherttar is covered all over his body with tattoos repeating the name of his God Rama … D. N. Verma amongst old manual typewriters that he is repairing at his Chhattisgarh Typewriter Works company in Raipur … my ‘Generations – Aurukun’ work at the ‘IRIS Awards‘, Perth Centre for Photography … ‘Tomotaro on the Block’ on the wall of the ‘Fremantle International Portrait Prize’, Moore’s Gallery, Fremantle (the same pic as selected for the ‘Portrait Salon’ in the UK’) … ‘Generations – Aurukun’ at the ‘Fremantle International Portrait Prize’, Moore’s Gallery, Fremantle.

 

'Ramnami' from Chhattisgarh, India - image © by Brian Cassey

D. N. Verma - typewriter technician and owner of Chhattisgarh Typewriter Works in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India - image © Brian Cassey

Image 'Generations - Aurukun' - finalist IRIS Awards, Perth Centre for Photography - © by Brian Cassey

'Tomotaro on the Block' 0 Fremantle International Portrait Prize (FIPP) - Finalist © Brian Cassey

'Generations - Aurukun' - Fremantle International Portrait Prize (FIPP) - Finalist © Brian Cassey