The Mono Awards 2021 - The People's Choice winners!

15 September 2021

Recently, we announced the winners of the third edition of The Mono Awards, but today we are revealing the results of the competition’s People’s Choice Award which took place on The Mono Awards dedicated Facebook page.

Over the course of the two weeks of voting, clear winners emerged as the people of Facebook voted the images below as the absolute favourites.

Run by Capture and Australian Photography, The Mono Awards celebrates the finest black-and-white photography across Australia and New Zealand.

Each category will have its own People's Choice winner, and each winner will take home a $100 Momento voucher and a 12-month subscription to either Australian Photography or Capture magazine.

Animals

Garnering over 700 likes on Facebook, Jaydene Chapman’s portrait of a dog titled Django’s Profile has taken home the People’s Choice title for the Animals category.

Giving us some behind-the-scenes insight into how the impressive still was captured, Jaydene shared, “Django was full of smiles for his studio sitting but for just a moment he looked towards my studio light so I could capture his beautiful profile.”

The photograph may also look familiar to you as it was featured on the front cover of the September edition of Australian Photography.

Places

© Ian Nord, 'Here It Comes' - The Mono Awards 2021

Captured at an ocean pool in Newcastle, Ian Nord’s photograph titled Here it comes is the winner of the People’s Choice Award in the Places category with more than 150 likes. The title of the image refers to the ocean waves on their way to break on the wall of the ocean pool.

Speaking about his image, Nord shared, "Living in Newcastle close to the ocean is a great place for photography as the ocean changes from day to day, one day calm and the next it can have huge swells."

"Here It Comes was taken when there was an east coast low off the coast of New South Wales and it was whipping up huge swells. The young blokes become daredevils with the huge swell. They watch and wait with anticipation for the huge waves to crash onto the rock platform around the canoe pool and wash them across the shallow pool."

"I was trying to capture the size of the crashing wave towering over the young blokes as they waited for the rush."

People

© Amber Botterill, 'Pout' - The Mono Awards 2021

Coming in just shy of 400 votes, Amber Botterill’s image, Pout, took out the People’s Choice title for the People category.

Sharing the story behind the photo. Amber said, "I took this image of my son in June during Melbournes 4th lockdown. It was Friday afternoon and after another week of homeschooling and some rubbish weather we were all pretty grumpy. There was some nice light coming into one of my favourite spots in the house and I grabbed the little guy to test it out. He didn't need to pose or change his expression - in that moment his face and the stunning light said it all. It was perfect!"

"His 'Pout' represents the frustration, tiredness and utter boredom we were all feeling that day. And while this image is a bit of fun, I love it because his expression is so relatable in Covid times and I know I am not the only one pulling these faces behind my mask everyday!"

Missed out on the voting? Not to worry, you can still view the Top 30 albums for Animals here, Places here, People here.

You can also see all the winning images from the judge’s picks right here.