The 2023 Head On Photo Awards results have been announced, with two Australians pocketing top spots including Newcastle photographer, David Cossini, who won the prestigious Portrait Prize.
The Head On Photo Awards, consisting of the Portrait, Landscape, Student, and the new Environmental prize, were announced at the photo festivals’ launch on November 10 at Bondi Beach. Cossini wins $10,000 cash and other prizes. Each category has both an international and Australian runner-up.
Cossini’s winning image, Ugandan Ssebabi, is ‘set among the tough slums of Kyazanga’, the image description states, and ‘is a photographic tribute to the world’s greatest underdog’.
‘Godfrey Baguma, born with a rare and painful physical disability, was abandoned by his mother as a bringer of ‘bad luck’ and shunned by society,’ the image description states. ‘Through a chance encounter, he reinvents himself as an entertainer in a travelling show. Now 57, he has beaten the odds. While most people with his condition die by 40, he has found love, success and bought a house — a testament to human resilience and positivity.’
It’s the second time Ugandan Ssebabi has appeared on Inside Imaging, with Cossini’s image winning the 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize (NPPP) Art Handler’s Award earlier this year.
The Head On Landscape Prize was won by Sydney-based underwater photographer, Talia Greis, for her image Underwater Garden.
‘A shallow, pond like, open air sinkhole with the most impressive range of water lilies,’ the image description states. ‘Found in the depths of the rainforest, Mexico.’
The Environmental Prize overall winner is Belgian documentary photographer, Alain Schroeder, for Saving orangutans 1.
‘Sibolangit, SOCP Quarantine Centre, North Sumatra, Indonesia,’ the image description states. ‘The SOCP team works together to prepare Brenda, an estimated 3-month-old female orangutan (she has no teeth yet), for surgery. They administer a sedative, shave her arm, and take her temperature while others hold her head or hand out of compassion. This series documents Indonesia’s orangutan’s rescue, rehabilitation, and release. They are under threat from the ongoing depletion of the rainforest due to palm oil plantations, logging, mining, and hunting.’
And lastly, the Student Prize goes to Lucia St Leon for Paper constructs.
‘I experiment with light and natural fragments of the earth, captured and reframed through dioramas to create an alluring glimpse of the connection between Earthy forms and their inhabitants. Encouraging appreciation for our world.’
Here’s the Australian and international runner-ups:
Portrait Prize runner-ups
Landscape Prize runner-ups
Environmental Prize runner-ups
‘This series documents the proliferation of disguised cell phone towers in the American West. By attempting to conceal an unsightly yet essential technology of the modern world, our landscapes are now sown with a quirky mosaic of masquerading palms, evergreens, flagpoles, crosses, and cacti. But the towers are simulacra. They are water towers that hold no water, windmills that provide no power, and trees that provide no oxygen, yet they all provide five bars of service. The towers pose the question: How much of an ersatz landscape and manufactured nature are we willing to accept in exchange for connectivity?’
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