Winners of the 2021 Head Photo Awards revealed

The winners of the 2021 Head On Photo Awards have just been announced across three categories: Landscape, Portrait, and Student. Open to both amateur and professional photographers, the annual Awards offer a prize pool of $70,000 and are judged by a panel of internationally recognised photographers, editors, and leading industry professionals.

The winner of the 2021 Head On Photo Award Winners were named as Australian photographer Aletheia Casey (Landscape), British photographer Gideon Mendel (Portrait), and Chege Mbuthi (Student).

Winners and runners-up

Landscape

Aletheia Casey’s winning work, A lost place, is a personal reaction to the Australian fires of 2019/2020, which almost destroyed her family home. “Although I have lived much of my adult life abroad, Australia is, and always will be, my home,” she stated. “As I watched the fires from London, feeling powerless to help family and friends, I painted on prints from my last time in Australia with oils and inks. I reworked them in an attempt to implant my fear and powerlessness into the imagery.”

Runners-up for the Landscape Award were Raoul Slater (Australia) with his work, Kangaroo Court, and Juan Carlos Pinto Márquez (Mexico), with his work, Petals swarm.

Portrait

Gideon Mendel’s winning work, Jenni Bruce at her burnt home in Upper Brogo, New South Wales, January 2020, was also a result of the 2019/2020 bushfires, and was taken at the destroyed home of sculptor Jenni Bruce, who said: “... it was all gone. I had a great workshop with tools that I had spent a lifetime gathering. I had a huge collection of paints and canvases, and I was working on a new body of work to exhibit. It was just devastating to lose that amount of hard work... I wish the people in power would listen; I wish they would stop using industries that are so bad for our environment.”

Runners-up for the Portrait Award were Mark Forbes (Australia) for his work, Perfect Stranger and Joseph-Philippe Bevillard (Ireland) with his image, Donoghue brothers, Galway, Ireland.

Student

Winner of the Student Award, Chege Mbuthi’s image, By the front door, was captured during last year’s lockdown. “As I found myself with more spare time, I began to experiment further with my portrait photography,” he said. “As the name states, I took the shot at the front of my home, which has beautiful soft light filtered through one window, which fell upon my silhouette. The simplicity of the image, combined with the minimal colour, created an aesthetically pleasing image.”

Runners-up for the Student Award are Holly Houssarini for her image, Contemplation, and Leila Edelstein with her image, The girl and the cat that died.

Exhibitions featuring the winners and finalist works for each category will be presented as part of the 2021 Head On Photo Festival, which runs until 28 November.

Check out other Festival highlights at this link.

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