PORTRAITS INSPIRATIONAL GALLERY

COMPETITION JUDGED BY JOAKIM ESKILDEN

Joakim Eskildsen is a Danish photographer known for his intimate depictions of the human condition, combining a documentary approach with a fine art sensibility to create visually striking and emotionally resonant images. He gained international attention and widespread acclaim with his project The Roma Journeys, in which he spent seven years documenting the lives of Romani people across seven different countries to highlight both their hardships, and rich cultural heritage. His later series, American Realities, examined poverty in the US, capturing the struggles of families affected by economic downturns.

Illuminating issues of inequality and the impact of global economic forces, often through powerful environmental portraits, his boundary-pushing documentary photography has won numerous accolades.

IMAGES © JOAKIM ESKILDEN

BLACK & WHITE INSPIRATIONAL GALLERY

COMPETITION JUDGED BY MARCIN RYCZEK

Marcin Ryczek is a fine art photographer whose meditative work draws on minimalist and symbolic themes, under a self-proclaimed philosophy of “minimum form, maximum content”. Across an eclectic range of genres – architecture, travel, sport, wildlife – he uses his unique visual language to create poetic work that is both idiosyncratic and universally accessible. His image, A Man Feeding Swans in the Snow, is one of the most iconic of the internet age – widely shared across social and traditional media, and earning him the Grand Prix in the international competition Grand Prix de Découverte: International Fine-Art Photography Award and The Huffington Post’s ‘most striking fine art photograph of the year’.

He has exhibited globally and been published by The Guardian, Der Spiegel, The Daily Telegraph and National Geographic, has work in the public collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France and the Silesian Museum in Poland, and has received awards from the IPA, Grand Press Photo and the Siena International Photography Awards.

IMAGES © MARCIN RYCZEK

CITIES INSPIRATIONAL GALLERY

COMPETITION JUDGED BY JESSE MARLOW

Ask any street or urban photographer who inspires them, and they’ll probably mention Jesse Marlow: an Australian street photographer celebrated for his ability to find beautiful moments of surprise and coincidence within the mundane. His practice involves an acute awareness of his urban environment, using his countless hours of practice and “the daily grind that most people find themselves in” as a source of inspiration to craft his distinctive visual style that merges humor, ambiguity, and sharp observational insight.

He has published four photobooks including the widely acclaimed Don’t Just Tell Them, Show Them (2014 and 2022), showcasing his vibrant exploration of urban spaces in his home city of Melbourne, and has earned significant accolades, including the International Street Photographer of the Year Award in 2011 and Bowness Prize from the Monash Gallery of Art in 2012. He also runs workshops and is a member of the international street photographers’ collective UP Photographers.

IMAGES © JESSE MARLOW