Winners of $70,000 Head On Photo Awards announced

1 May 2020

The 2020 Head On Photo Awards have been announced, with the annual photography competition celebrating excellence across three categories: Portrait, Landscape and Student.

Overall Winner, Portrait, Fiona Wolf-Symeonides, The gift, RHW 2020.

In the portrait category, Australian photographer Fiona Wolf-Symeonides‘s The gift, RHW 2020, has won the overall award. Her image captures a modern family story of a girl born by a warrior woman to two loving dads, with the love and support of a wonderful family around them.

Runner-up, Portrait, Jon Frank, Yuendumu, Northern Territory, 2019.

The Australian runner up is photographer and filmmaker Jon Frank’s image Yuendumu, Northern Territory, 2019, created during his year living and working with the Warlpiri people in the Northern Territory.

Overall Winner, Landscape, Whimsical warrior by Mullengudgery based special needs teacher Marcia Macmillan.

The 2020 Landscape prize went to Mullengudgery based special needs teacher Marcia Macmillan, for her image Whimsical warrior, which caught the moment her daughter, a quintessential farm girl who likes to dress up, ran towards a huge dust storm. "A fragile, yet fearless nine-year-old, challenging mother nature to unleash herself in all her fury."

Australian Runner Up, Landscape: Celebrated Australian photojournalist Nick Moir’s Run documenting firefighters escaping the intense heat of the Green Wattle Creek fire in Orangeville during the devastating 2019/20 Australian bushfire season.

Finally the Student prize went to Joel Parkinson’s Within without, a self-portrait that explores the unstable terrain between childhood and adulthood and illustrates the last vestiges of innocence and ever-growing maturity and individuality before the arrival of adulthood.

The annual awards offer a prize-pool of $70,000 to professional and amateur photographers around the world. The awards are a rewarding platform for both professional and amateur photographers with finalist exhibitions set to tour internationally after the festival.

Exhibitions featuring the winners and finalist works for each category will also be presented online as part of the 2020 Head On(line) Photo Festival.

Running from 1 – 17 May 2020, the digital festival features 110 exhibitions by leading international and local photographers from around the globe alongside a public program of over 80 artist talks, panel discussions and webinars, led by internationally renowned photographers and industry professionals, stretching five continents.

To see the 2020 Head On Photo Award finalist exhibitions and for more information, check out the festival website.

You can see the other finalists in the 2020 Awards below.

International Runner Up, Landscape: English photographer Paul Carruthers’s Cheddar Gorge - Horseshoe Bend which is a five-minute night-time exposure of the famous limestone gorge, once voted one of the seven wonders of Britain.

International Runner Up, Portrait: Acclaimed Dutch photographer Jouk Oosterhof’s work Egbert, a portrait of toddler Egbert that draws on an old technique used for long exposures where children were held by their parents who were covered in
decorative fabrics, to keep them in place and prevent blurry pictures. — International Runner Up, Portrait: Acclaimed Dutch photographer Jouk Oosterhof’s work Egbert, a portrait of toddler Egbert that draws on an old technique used for long exposures where children were held by their parents who were covered in decorative fabrics, to keep them in place and prevent blurry pictures.

Alice Tasker’s self-portrait titled Bagel, after her nickname, that was taken in a local park and seeks to capture her identity in the quiet moments.

Lewis Dobbin’s Snow trails features three hikers trekking across a barren snow filled landscape and considers the lasting impact humans have on untouched landscapes despite their sheer inferiority to nature.