2021 Nikon Prize Winners and Walkley Award photography finalists announced

25 October 2021

Kate Geraghty, a staff photographer with the Sydney Morning Herald, has been named winner of the 2021 Nikon Photo of the Year Prize for her image, Fighting COVID-19 Delta.

Photo: Kate Geraghty, The Sydney Morning Herald. A COVID-19 positive patient with the Delta variant receives treatment in St Vincent’s Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. Sydney, NSW. July 13, 2021.
Photo: Kate Geraghty, The Sydney Morning Herald. A COVID-19 positive patient with the Delta variant receives treatment in St Vincent’s Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. Sydney, NSW. July 13, 2021.

The judges felt that Geraghty’s photo epitomised the year that’s been, commenting: “This sums up COVID like no other picture. An empathetic image that explains COVID in Australia: all the loneliness and isolation. There’s a greater story being told; a lot of family members can’t even get that close to patients like this. Geraghty’s skills with, and use of, light make the image.

Meanwhile, Cairns-based photographer Brian Cassey took out the Nikon Portrait Prize for his image, The Yarrick Family of Kunhanhaa, which he produced for The Australian. The judges felt that Cassey’s stunning family portrait told them a great deal about its subjects, from where they live to how they communicate.

Photo: Brian Cassey, The Australian. Mother Shaylene Yarrick beds down five of the children who sleep in the lounge of her two-bedroom house, which regularly sleeps up to 22 members of her extended family.
Photo: Brian Cassey, The Australian. Mother Shaylene Yarrick beds down five of the children who sleep in the lounge of her two-bedroom house, which regularly sleeps up to 22 members of her extended family.

The judges stated: “It’s not easy to get that many people in a shot, compose an image, and get it to work. One child makes eye contact, but everyone else is doing their own thing. The lighting is just beautiful and the circular motion of the composition means the faces keep drawing the eye around, finding something new each time.”

As part of the 66th annual Walkley Awards for Excellence in Photojournalism a number of photographers have been named as finalists in the categories listed below.

Sport photography

  • Alex Coppel, Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail and The Advertiser, “The Games that Had to Happen”
  • Michael Dodge, Tennis Australia and Instagram, “Unguarded Moments”
  • Jason Edwards, Herald Sun and The Australian, “The Crux”
Finalist: Alex Coppel, Herald-Sun, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail and The Adelaide Advertiser, “The Games That Had to Happen. USA’s Tara Davis lets her hair fly as she makes her landing in the final of the Women’s Long Jump at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Finalist: Alex Coppel, Herald-Sun, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail, and The Adelaide Advertiser, “The Games That Had to Happen". USA’s Tara Davis lets her hair fly as she makes her landing in the final of the Women’s Long Jump at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

News photography

  • Kate Geraghty, The Sydney Morning Herald, “COVID-19 ICU”
  • Justin McManus, The Age, “Anti-Lockdown Protest”
  • Brook Mitchell, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Sydney Anti-Lockdown Protest”
Finalist: Brook Mitchell, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Sydney Anti-Lockdown Protest. A protester makes contact with a police horse outside Town Hall during a chaotic anti-lockdown protest in Sydney on July 24, 2021.
Finalist: Brook Mitchell, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Sydney Anti-Lockdown Protest. A protester makes contact with a police horse outside Town Hall during a chaotic anti-lockdown protest in Sydney on July 24, 2021.

Feature/photographic essay

  • Scott Barbour, ausopen.com, “2021 Australian Open”
  • Jake Nowakowski, Herald Sun and The Weekend Australian Magazine, “Superheroes in Lockdown”
  • Dean Sewell, The Sun-Herald, “Of Mice and Men”
Finalist: Dean Sewell, Sun Herald, Of Mice and Men. Allan Inglis disposes of drowned mice carcasses in the open fields beyond the homestead. He performs this task several times over during the morning. “Even the Guinea Fowl are sick of them,” he quips, as he nods to the birds that roam freely around his property.
Finalist: Dean Sewell, Sun Herald, 'Of Mice and Men'. Allan Inglis disposes of drowned mice carcasses in the open fields beyond the homestead. He performs this task several times over during the morning. “Even the Guinea Fowl are sick of them,” he quips, as he nods to the birds that roam freely around his property.

Nikon-Walkley Press Photographer of the Year

  • Alex Coppel, Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph and The Courier-Mail
  • Jason Edwards, Herald Sun
  • Christopher Hopkins, The Age, The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald and Al Jazeera

All Walkley Award winners will be announced at a gala dinner in Tamworth on Friday, 11 February, 2022.

Walkley photographic judges

  • Sandra Jackson, Visual Editor, The West Australian
  • Danie Sprague, Photographic Editor, The Age
  • Barbara McGrady, photographer
  • Mark Baker, Senior Photo Editor and Photographer, AP
  • Renee Nowytarger, past Nikon-Walkley Press Photographer of the Year

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