October 24th, 2021
A distinct pleasure … for the sixth year … to be invited to judge and present at the annual Trinity Bay High School Photographic Portrait Prize for 2021.
It never ceases to amaze me the quality of portrait work that these talented teen students submit … and the passion and dedication shown by their tutors to foster that talent.
Another big year for student entries this year … the schools gallery space was crowded with some excellent portraiture. As always the case, several images stood out … the more difficult part was settling on a winner and the other prize winners.
The work of year eleven Patrick Rubambo student ‘No Face’ featuring Angelique Iradukunda … an evocative, creative, well executed, nicely composed and beautifully detailed and printed black and white portrait (top below) … left me no option but to declare it the Winner.
Patrick hails from Burundi in east central Africa and came to Australia in 2019. Now in his third year at Trinity Bay High, he has been studying Film, TV and Photography since inspired by what he saw on YouTube and Instagram. His mates seemed more excited than Patrick as he calmly accepted his prize … a Nikon DSLR courtesy of Garricks Camera House.
Year 12 student Ipsa Bharti was selected as runner up for her beautifully lit portrait ‘Patter of my Mind’, year 11 Madi La Pira was not far behind with her candid approach to ‘EOTS’, whilst Abbey Wilson’s (year 12) creative ‘Ghost’ scored an Honourable Mention. (All shown below.)
Janelle Williams Head of the schools Visual Arts department, New Media teacher Luke Madsen, arts teacher Caroline Mudge and all others involved in fostering the students visual talents should be most gratified with the results.
You can find the winners images from previous years TBHS portrait prizes here … 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016.
Images © the students … (clockwise from top) … Patrick Rubambo, Ipsa Bharti, Madi La Pira and Abbey Wilson
‘Veronica’ Wins MIFA Gold …
But wait … there’s more ! Hot on the heels of the wonderful 2022 ‘International Portrait Photographer of the Year’ results … see the post on the 25th of June … has come the results from the 2022 ‘Moscow International Foto Awards’ (MIFA). (N.B – not political or warmongering in any way).
The great new news is my images picked up two gongs … a Winning shiny Gold in the ‘Editorial’ category and a Bronze in the ‘People’ category.
Really stoked to see ‘Veronica – Where Home Brew Kills’ … an image I made (top below) in Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria whilst covering the story of a dangerous home brew alcohol epidemic in the community … take out the Gold placement in Editorial & Environment. It’s the second time it’s caught the eye, winning an ‘Honourable Mention’ earlier this year in the 2022 17th Pollux Awards. (Will prepare a print for Veronica and her family and deliver to them when next I get to Mornington Island.)
Also in the MIFA mix was my portrait of the delightful African American Aurora (bottom of this post) entitled ‘Mother Africa’ which won a Bronze award in People/Culture. The aim of ‘Mother Africa’ was to represent the ill treatment of Aurora’s African forbears in the America’s over the centuries. The work is racking up a list of recognitions with previous selections in 2022 The Percival Portrait Prize, the 2022 International Color Awards and the 2022 International Portrait Photographer of the Year.
Huge Thanks to Veronica and Aurora … can’t do this stuff without wonderful subjects.
Without overdoing it … there’s a couple of more bits of good news coming … but I’m not allowed at this stage to share the details 🙂
Images © Brian Cassey