8th Year … Trinity Bay High Student Portrait Prize …

This past week I once again had the delightful task of judging the works of Trinity Bay High School students in their annual Photographic Portrait Prize … and presenting the awards for the eighth year in a row.

Yearly, I’ve been amazed by the quality of photographic portraiture produced by the students … some barely in their teens. Looking back on my pictorial skills when their age, I would have been way down the bottom of class.

Having said that, this year when faced with over sixty quality portraits lining the Visual Arts walls, I was even more stunned. The collective students had really excelled and produced a ‘best ever’ portraiture exhibition.

Selecting the three winners was a daunting and lengthy task. In the end the overall winner boiled down to an almost impossible choice between two great portraits … neither of which would look out of place published in National Geographic magazine. Ultimately the self portrait ‘Window of Soul’ (top) by David-Paul Onakoy got the winning nod over ‘It Takes a Village to Raise a Child’ (second from top) made by his mate David Mashengo … but only just !! The Congolese student pair both produced wonderfully constructed portraits that told a story. David-Paul took home the winners prize of a DSLR camera courtesy of sponsors Garricks Camera House.

Interestingly and in contrast to the previous couple of years … this years three winners all showed strong eye contact in their portraits, with the beautifully executed and literally eye-catching work by Sienna Stuart-Bennet of her friend Shakira, ‘Vision’, making up the top prized trio.

I could have easily awarded a dozen or so ‘Honourable Mentions’ but had to limit the decision to just three, coincidently all black and white portraits. The works of … Jade Gubb (titled ‘Dystopian Gremlin’ – great attitude and angle of view) … Noecocha Cowley (‘Mary’ – striking use of shadow) … and Mattie-Leigh Hanson (‘Seashore’ – beautifully constructed and composed), prevailed. Virgil Gill won the top prize amongst the school staff section for the work ‘Sunshine’ … whilst ‘Sweet 16’ by student Shirley Vue (bottom image) was chosen by popular vote as ‘Peoples Choice’.

Much praise must go to the dedicated Visual Arts teaching staff at the school who are fostering and moulding this amazing young photographic talent.

You can view all the TBHS students winning works from the past seven years by clicking here… 2022202120202019201820172016

See you all next year for number nine …

Images © The Student Artists … from top … David-Paul Onakoy, David Mashengo, Sienna Stuart-Bennet, Jade Gubb, Noecocha Cowley & Mattie-Leigh Hanson, Shirley Vue

IRIS Award … It’s Alf …

… I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone which of my images was selected as a Finalist in the Perth Centre for Photography’s IRIS Awards a few weeks ago … the list of selected works was a well kept secret … but I can now !

Last Friday saw the opening eve of the awards in Perth … and the forty works selected as Finalists filled the PCP gallery. There was my image “100 Years & 3 Weeks – Alf Neal OAM” hanging nicely on the wall (thanks to the printing and framing skills of Paul Maietta and the crew at Fitzgerald Photo Imaging).

A little forward planning and a lot of positive finger crossing meant that I managed to arrive in Perth from London two days before Fridays’ opening event (shattered following the seventeen hour direct flight that I booked many months ago !).

It’s the third time in a row that my work has been selected as a finalist in this biennial award … links to my previous Finalist works may be found here (2021) … and here (2019) .

Sadly Alf didn’t get to hear of this latest ‘recognition’ of his work in indigenous community and on the 1967 referendum, as he passed away quietly in May this year.

However, “100 Years & 3 Weeks – Alf Neal OAM” is continuing to wrack up accolades and preserve the memory of a wonderful inspirational Yarrabah gentleman.

Image of Alf © Brian Cassey

IRIS Awards - Perth Centre for Photography 2023 Finalists

One Place Better … International Portrait Photographer of the Year …

Chuffed … !  The results just in for the 2022 ‘The International Portrait Photographer of the Year’ awards … and two of my images are represented.

‘The Yarrick Family of Kunhanhaa’ (top below) has been selected as the winner of Second Place  (The Family Sitting) “The International Portrait photographer of the Year”  … and, very nicely includes the award of some ‘folding stuff’ and … rare these days … a glass trophy to whack in the ‘office’. It will also be showcased TWICE in the accompanying book ‘The Top 101 International Portrait Photographs of the Year’ … firstly in the ‘winners’ section  and then in the ‘Top 101’ portraits section.

Also selected in the ‘Top 101’ section of the book is my portrait of gorgeous African American Aurora Coulter … ‘Mother Africa – Aurora’ (also below).

‘The Top 101 International Portrait Photographs of the Year’ book will be available in hard cover and as an ebook in the very near future. Stay tuned for the link …

Both portraits have featured in other earlier International and Australian award selections. Check ’em out on my ‘awards’ page here …

Images © Brian Cassey

2022 International Portrait Photographer of the Year - WINNER 2nd Place - "The Yarrick Family of Kunhanhaa" - The Family Sitting - "Mother Africa - Aurora" - by Brian Cassey

2022 International Portrait Photographer of the Year - WINNER 2nd Place - "The Yarrick Family of Kunhanhaa" - The Family Sitting - "Mother Africa - Aurora" - by Brian Cassey

International Portrait Photographer of the Year … Wow !

Chuffed … !  The results are just in for the inaugural ‘The International Portrait Photographer of the Year’ awards … and two of my images are represented.

‘Bonn Marie – Asking the Question’ (below) has been selected as the winner of Third Place – The Character Study … and, very nicely includes the award of some cash and … rare this days … a trophy to whack in the ‘office’. It will also be showcased TWICE in the accompanying book ‘The Top 101 International Portrait Photographs of the Year’ … firstly in the ‘winners’ section  and then in the ‘Top 101’ portraits section.

Also selected in the ‘Top 101’ section of the book is my portrait of Kate Yeoman … ‘Kate – Waiting For Her New Breasts II’ (also below) … a slightly different version of the original newspaper published image. This version has Kate with her eyes closed and I now feel it evokes more emotion than the earlier pic.

‘The Top 101 International Portrait Photographs of the Year’ book will be available in hard cover and as an ebook in the very near future. Will post a link …

Both portraits (or very similar in Kate’s case) have featured in other earlier International and Australian award selections. Check ’em out on my ‘awards’ page here …

Here’s just a few of the other International sites that are featuring this award and my portrait of Bonn Marie …

https://www.diyphotography.net/this-touching-and-trippy-portrait-wins-the-international-portrait-photographer-of-the-year-2021/

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/au/news/stunning-and-evocative-images-celefutbrated-in-new-global-portrait-photo-contest 

https://www.dpreview.com/news/9899566132/slideshow-winners-of-the-international-portrait-photographer-of-the-year-awards

https://www.oceanroadmagazine.com.au/winners-of-the-international-portrait-photographer-of-the-year-2021/

Images © Brian Cassey

International Portrait Photographer of the Year - 3rd Place - "Bon Marie - Asking The Question" - The Character Study - by Brian Cassey

International Portrait Photographer of the Year - "Kate - Waiting For Her New Breasts" - The Top 101 Portrait Photographs of the Year 2021 - by Brian Cassey

A Portrait ‘Treble’ at the Australian Photography Awards …

At the risk of sounding monotonous and repetitive … my apologies for once again featuring these three of my portrait images … but …

… all three have just been selected as ‘Honourable Mention’ Finalists in the Portrait category of the 2019 ‘Australian Photography Awards’ … pretty gratified with that.

Each of the three images have been really good for me … previously and variously being ‘mentioned in dispatches’ in the ‘Portrait of Humanity 2019’, ‘Moscow International Foto Awards’, ‘Tokyo International Foto Awards’, ‘Head On Portrait Prize’, ’12th International Color Awards’ … and the soon to be officially opened ‘Fremantle International Portrait Prize’ and  ‘IRIS Portrait Prize’ in Western Australia.

Below are the three … “Generations Aurukun” featuring Aurukun elders Silas and Rebecca Wolmby with their twin great grand children … “Tomotaro on the Block’ of Japanese paralympic swimmer Tomotaro Nakamura at the 2018 Pan Pacific Para Games in Cairns … and “Victim of Sorcery – Dorcas” of ‘Sanguma’ (sorcery) victim Dorcas Numbi Nunugi recovering from a near fatal attack at a ‘safe house’ in Goroka, Papua New Guinea.

The ‘Australian Photography Awards’ exhibition opens at Sun Studios Melbourne on October 12th and runs until October 20th. Sadly, will miss the opening as have already committed to the ‘FIPP’ exhibition event in Fremantle on the same day.

Promise that I’ll soon shut up about these three pics … and concentrate on producing some new work 😉 .

Images © Brian Cassey

 

Three Honourable Mentions in Portrait Category of the Australian Photography Awards 2019 by Brian Cassey