Bina Taylor, The next Gen (PORTRAIT 2021)

During these portrait shoots as we emerged from COVID-19 lockdown measures in Melbourne, I was curious to hear how these young Australians were impacted by the lockdown measures. To my surprise, each of them spoke of the impact it had, especially on schooling and employment, but their priority and focus wasn't about COVID-19, it was on the importance for acceptance, tolerance and equality. If anything, COVID put these priorities into perspective for them. My goal for these portraits shifted as I started to see a strength and wisdom that I think has been overlooked in this generation.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.