Who is Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographer 2020?

By Marc Gafen | 4 May 2020

Finally, we can reveal the overall winner of the region’s greatest search for the next generation of the best emerging talent. Now in its 12^th year, the growth and popularity of Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers continues unabated, receiving 32% more entries than it did in 2019, and boasting an increase of almost 60% over the last two years.

In order to arrive at the winners, runners-up, and top finalists, the competition relied on the wisdom, experience, and expertise of a judging panel comprising 34 top industry experts from Australia, and around the globe. Scroll to the bottom of this article for the full, inspiring list.

This year, the overall winner, Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographer 2020, is Callie Chee. She also took out the Travel category, proving to be a firm favourite with the judges in this year’s competition. Her portfolio was rated as the best in her category with 60% of the judges ranking it as their favourite. And across all categories, her portfolio also scored the greatest proportion of the points allotted to the respective categories.

Along with the highly coveted title of Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographer 2020, Chee takes home the grand prize – a Fujifilm X-T3 and XF18-55mm lens valued at $3,298, from our major sponsor, Fujifilm, along with $1,500 cash.
View her winning portfolio here.

© Aimee Lipscombe. Overall runner-up, Australasia's Top Emerging Photographer 2020, and winner of the Portrait category. — © Aimee Lipscombe. Overall runner-up, Australasia's Top Emerging Photographer 2020,
and winner of the Portrait category.

Recognition and congratulations must also go to the overall runner-up, and winner of the Portrait category, Aimee Lipscombe, whose work was lauded by the judges. Third place overall went to Federico Rekowski, winner of the Landscape category. Winner of our newly introduced category, Single Shot, was Martin Von Stoll.

© Federico Rekowski. Overall third place, Australasia's Top Emerging Photographer 2020, and winner of the Landscape category. — © Federico Rekowski. Overall third place, Australasia's Top Emerging Photographer 2020,
and winner of the Landscape category.

Category winners and runners-up will be revealed on the Capture website later, so please keep an eye out. Alternatively, to learn all the results including the winners, runners-up, and top place-getters across the nine categories, and see their breathtaking work, check out the May/June/July edition online right now, or track down the paper edition from your favourite newsagent in the next week or so. Entrants whose portfolio submissions were Highly Commended and Commended will be notified via e-mail in June.

Overall winner - what the judges thought

These works leaped off the screen because of their clarity, simplicity, and elegance. Beautiful composition, and with a subtle colour palette, these works speak of restrained but sophisticated post production skills too. A new talent to watch for! – John Gollings AM

This set of images works incredibly cohesively as a folio. Each image presents with a beautifully balanced composition, a very deliberate sense of timing and subject placement, and conveys an enticing sense of quietness and poise. There’s a wonderfully delicate graphical quality to each image which separately emphasises vertical, circular, and horizontal lines, and a colour palette of soft pastel tones that weaves through the set and adds a deliciously painterly feel to the folio. A very worthy winner! – Paul Hoelen

This series of images has just about everything for me. For starters, the colour palette. The photographer has understood how to blend the images together, giving each one equal importance and a unique flavour. The content of the imagery, while not totally unknown to the viewer, has been looked at by a really keen eye, giving it a point of view that is outstanding and individual. The less-is-more concept is prevalent in this body of work too. The photographer has kept the beauty and simplicity, combining it with graphic elements, all the while managing not to overcomplicate the work.

To that end, this body of work is highly praiseworthy. It shows the maturity of the photographer in being able to create such images, keeping them calm and still, and enhancing the beauty of the scene, not compromising it. – Sally Brownbill

© Martin Von Stoll. Single Shot category winner – Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers 2020.

To our supporters and sponsors

Much thanks must also go to our major sponsor, Fujifilm, and all our category sponsors: DJI, EIZO, Camera House, Camera Pro, LaCie, Midland Insurance, Momento Pro, The Brownbill Effect, and Seagate. Without their incredible generosity and commitment to supporting emerging photographic talent, competitions like this simply aren’t possible.

This year the total prize pool was worth over $26,000, with $18,500 in prizes, plus cash prizes of $7,500. The Emerging Photographer of the Year receives the grand prize – a Fujifilm X-T3 and XF18-55mm lens valued at $3,298, plus $1,500, while the overall runner-up receives a Fujifilm X-Pro2 Graphite Edition with XF 23mm f/2 lens valued at $3,099. Category winners receive a mix of cash prizes, prizes from our category sponsors, plus a Fujifilm FinePix XF10 valued at $799 from our major sponsor, Fujifilm.

OUR JUDGES

We’re thrilled to boast the rather impressive group to top professionals who helped determine the winners of Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers 2020.

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