Australian Photography September 2022

Even in an era of mega-megapixels, vast dynamic range, and lenses so sharp they can make your eyes bleed, black and white has a place in photography that transcends any kind of technology, trend, or era. It’s a genre that speaks to both the past and present of photography, while continuing to captivate a new generation of photographers. The perfect black and white image is something you could spend a lifetime chasing. So, this issue, our annual black and white photography special, is something with a rare weight to it – not the least that it celebrates the best work of photographers in Australia and New Zealand through The Mono Awards, but also that it provides a platform for an artform that is so important to photography. Creatively speaking, black and white…

I’ve always loved black and white photography. It completely transforms a photograph and allows it to take on a totally new feel. And although some of my favourite images over the past 15 years are black and white, I rarely ever shoot anything with black and white at the front of my mind. When processing my photos, I’ll often work on the image as a colour file before wondering how it might look in black and white. That just seems to be the way it has worked for me - somewhat organically. Similarly, some of my favourite photographs have happened organically. No pre-planning or pre-visualising. Instead, just a scene I stumbled across, and maybe didn’t think much of at the time of shooting, or even until months or years later when…

PORTRAIT OF 'SILENT STRENGTH' WINS $50,000 NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PRIZE WAYNE Quilliam’s portrait Silent Strength 2021, depicting Aurukun man Eric Yunkaporta in ceremonial head-wear, has won the 2022 National Photographic Portrait Prize (NPPP). Quilliam is a leading Indigenous photographic artist, curator and cultural advisor and describes the portrait as like capturing Mother Earth. “In its purest essence, the evolution of culture connects us to Mother Earth. My role as a storyteller continues to evolve and this capture is akin to a trickle of water merging into a small stream then into the ocean. This image of Eric Yunkaporta from Aurukun is Culture”. In making their decision, the judging panel - made up of award-winning press photographer Nick Moir together with Sandra Bruce, the National Portrait Gallery’s Director of Collection and Exhibitions and Associate Curator…

I find Aperture Priority Mode the most creative and easiest to understand setting when it comes to learning and teaching people about photography. But when I need to be more technically accurate for a specific shoot, other modes come into play. Today I want to talk about one of them, Shutter Priority (Tv), which means I control the shutter speed and let the camera select an appropriate aperture for me. Shutter Priority is a key mode for sports, action, and bird photography, but in my experience most professional photographers of these genres will stick to Aperture Priority, with a few adding Manual Mode with limited Auto ISO to the mix. That’s not to say Shutter Priority doesn’t have its place though, so let’s look at two examples of different applications where…

POLLY FENTON Untitled EDITOR’S COMMENT Polly Fenton says this portrait of a girl from the Bari tribe was taken in a market in Turmi, Omo Valley, Ethiopia. “I wanted to capture her strong, feminine face and natural elegance, wearing a traditional outfit of goatskin decorated with cowrie shells and beads,” she says. This is a great, warm portrait helped by some flattering light and a lovely subject that really entices the viewer into exploring the frame. Smart move to choose an aperture that means we see all the fine details nice and sharp as well. TECHNICAL DETAILS Fujifilm X-T2. 18-135mm lens @42.5mm. 1/60s @f10, ISO 1600. JACOB DEDMAN Untitled EDITOR’S COMMENT There’s something lovely and timeless about Jacob Dedman’s Your Best Shot winning portrait for this month. He tells us the image came about after a friend’s daughter recently…

UPCOMING COMPETITION THEMES APRIL ISSUE INDOORS 31 January 2023 NOVEMBER ISSUE TEXTURE 31 August 2022 JUNE ISSUE MANIPULATION 31 March 2023 DECEMBER ISSUE FOG 30 September 2022 YOUR ENTRY 1. Email your entry to yourbestshot@australianphotography.com with the name of the competition theme in the email subject line, for example: Weather, Abstract, Landscape, etc.2. The image file must be the same as your name, for example Jane Smith.jpg. If you enter multiple images, each new image file name should be appended with a unique number, eg Jane Smith2.jpg3. A maximum of three images can be entered per person.4. Images must be in JPEG format.5. Email file size must not exceed 7MB.6. Please include the following information about your entry in the body of your email: Name, image title and up to 200 words explaining how you created your image. Please also include technical details including…