Photo: George Byrne
We have been helping photographers to Create, Exhibit and inspire since 2004.
The Head On Photo Awards represent a global selection of the best work from emerging and established photographers across four categories; Portrait, Landscape, Mobile and Student. Head On Photo Festival, one of the world's most prestigious photo festivals is calling for photographers to submit work to the Head On Photo Awards 2018.
The Head On Portrait, Landscape and Mobile prizes are open INTERNATIONALLY to professional, emerging and enthusiast photographers from classical to contemporary styles and the Head On Student Prize is open to Australia's young photographers (school years K-12).
ENTRY FEE: $30 (approx US$23) per image. Members discount available.
Student Prize fee - $1 per image
DEADLINE EXTENDED: Monday 26 February 2018 4PM (Sydney time)
Our anonymous judging ensures each work is selected solely on its merit rather than the celebrity of the photographer.
Since 2014 our Photo Awards have covered 4 diverse categories
The image must feature or reflect the essence of a person or group of people and must be photographed by the Applicant. Group portraits, self-portraits and collages will be accepted.
Our approach to ‘Landscape’ is very broad and encompasses ‘large vista’ images of the natural environment (land or sea), urban or industrial settings. It may include people but these should be ‘incidental’ rather than the main subject matter.
An additional prize, the “NSW Parliament Prize” will be awarded for the best image depicting scenes from New South Wales.
Images submitted can be of any subject matter and any style as long as they were captured on a mobile device. The judges will be looking for photographs that invoke a high level of engagement with the viewer.
This prize is only open to K-12 Australian School students. For the terms and conditions for the student prize click here.
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1 year Adobe Creative Cloud ($841RRP)
1 year digital subscription to Better Photography ($39)
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1 year digital subscription to Better Photography ($39)
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1 year digital subscription to Better Photography ($39)
Photobook Australia credit
1 year Adobe Creative Cloud ($841)
1 year digital subscription to Better Photography ($39)
Photobook Australia credit
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Finalists will be exhibited at the Festival Hub (Head On Portrait, Mobile and Student Prizes) or the NSW Parliament (Head On Landscape Prize) at no additional cost to the artists as part of the Head On Photo Festival, one of the world's leading photo festivals. The exhibitions may also tour to major international festivals.
Finalists also recieve:
A chance to win one of the prize packages! Combined value of packages in cash and product over $60,000
1 year digital subscription to Photo Review ($29)
A place in one of the most-widely visited exhibitions as part of Head On Photo Festival, one of the world's leading photo festivals which attracts extensive publicity through a variety of promotional channels
Promotion of the exhibitions through Head On Photo Festival mailing list, website, social media and a variety of other channels as well as a contracted PR agency
A fully produced exhibition - all costs associated with production and marketing of the Head On Photo Awards are covered by Head On Photo Festival
Selected exhibitions travel locally and internationally (past shows toured to Photoville, New York; Pingyao International Photography Festival, China; Auckland Photo Festival, New Zealand; Indian Photo Festival; Zurich Foto, Switzerland; International Photo Festival Leiden, Holland and more.
Every year we have a different judging panel to promote diversity in Photography. You can find a list of this years judges below.
Judging will be done anonymously; no identifying detail will be visible by the judges in order to ensure that the selection is not affected by the celebrity of the photographer and or the subject of the photograph.
Beijing Director, Three Shadows Photography Art Centre
Nataline Colonnello is a specialist in Chinese contemporary art who serves as the current director of Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing. She has been living in China since 2001, working as an art critic and leading major galleries like Galerie Urs Meile and Ink Studio. Her critical essays and interviews have appeared in numerous international publications, exhibition catalogues and monographs. In her current position at Three Shadows, she is in charge of the most authoritative private institution in China dedicated solely to photography. www.threeshadows.cn
Picture Editor, The Guardian Australia
Jonny Weeks is a British photographer, writer and picture editor. He's worked for The Guardian newspaper group since 2008 and spent the past three years managing The Guardian's picture-desk in Australia. He shoots and writes about news, sport, fashion and culture. Jonny studied photography at Central Saint Martins in London, specialising in alternative processes.
Director, Australian Centre for Photography
Cherie McNair, educated in Melbourne, holds an MA in Gallery and Museum Studies, together with a Post Grad Dip in Art History and Film Studies and a BA in Media Arts. McNair has over fifteen years’ experience in the visual arts sector in Australia and internationally and has delivered major photography exhibitions with institutions and photographers throughout her career.
Photographer
Katrin Koenning is a photographic artist and educator based between Melbourne, Australia, and Europe. She is represented by East Wing Gallery, Dubai. www.katrinkoenning.com
Photographer
Marcus Lyon (b. 1965) is a British artist, born and raised in rural Britain, Lyon studied Political Science. Commissioned and exhibited globally, his works are held in both private and international collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Arts Council Collection and the Smithsonian in Washington DC. He has created extensive bodies of work on dance, disability & development. The 21st century saw his work move beyond traditional forms as he began to incorporate sound & science into his practice. Outside the art world, Lyon is a determined social entrepreneur and an active public speaker. A TED speaker, he currently serves on the boards of Somerset House and Leaders’ Quest. www.marcuslyon.com
Photographer
James Whitlow Delano is an American reportage photographer based in Tokyo, Japan. He has published several books of photography and is known for long term projects based on human rights, the environment and culture. He is the founder of @everydayclimatechange on instagram. His work has been awarded internationally: the Alfred Eisenstadt Award (from Columbia University and Life Magazine), Leica’s Oskar Barnack, Picture of the Year International, PDN and others. www.jameswhitlowdelano.com
Photographer
A Walkley Award winning photojournalist, David Dare Parker has photographed for many national and international magazines throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Australasia. Publications include LeMonde, Stern, L'Express, Focus, Australian Geographic, The Bulletin, The New York Times, Fortune and Time Australia. He is featured in the Australian War Memorial book ‘Contact’ – Australian War Photographers and WAR: Degree South. www.daviddareparker.com
Photographer
Paula Bronstein is one of the world’s leading female photojournalist’s, she is currently based in Bangkok. Her work reflects the eye of a dedicated humanitarian and conflict photographer. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed book “Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear“. Paula worked as staff for a variety of US newspapers for 14 years. She went onto working for Getty Images news wire as a staff photographer from 2002-2013 covering stories globally. www.paulaphoto.com
 photo by Murray Fredericks_web.jpg)
Curator
Dr Alasdair Foster is a writer, researcher and award-winning curator initiating intercultural photography and visual art projects around the world, especially in Asia and the Pacific Rim. He is Adjunct Professor in the School of Art of RMIT University, Melbourne and a member of the university’s Centre for Art, Society and Transformation. Dr Foster has 20 years’ experience heading national arts institutions and over 35 years of working in the public cultural sector. He was the founding director of Fotofeis festival, Europe’s largest photo event of the nineties (1991–1997) and director of the Australian Centre for Photography (1998–2011). www.culturaldevelopmentconsulting.com
Photographer
Nancy Borowick, a World Press Photo winner, is a humanitarian photographer currently based on the island of Guam. A graduate of the International Center of Photography and Union College, Nancy focused over the last 10 years on telling stories of illness and personal relationships. Her monograph, The Family Imprint, published with Hatje Cantz in 2017 was a winner in the Photo District News Photo Annual and in the International Photo Awards. She is a regular contributor to the New York Times and was featured in the New York Times Lens Blog, CNN, National Geographic, Stern Magazine and others. Her work has been exhibited internationally, most recently at Anastasia Photo Gallery in New York City. www.nancyborowick.com
Founder and Creative Director, Head On Photo Festival
Moshe is the founder, creative director and lead curator of Head On Photo Festival, Australia's premier photography event, showcasing the work of international and local photographers of all genres and career stages. Moshe’s career spans over 40 years as a photojournalist, commercial photographer, educator and an award-winning television producer/director at SBS Television. Moshe’s work has been screened, published and exhibited in Australia and overseas.
Visual Arts Educator
Louise Heilpern is a Visual Arts teacher and the Visual Arts Project Officer (K-6) for the Visual Arts and Design Educators Association (VADEA). Before that Louise has worked as a practicing visual artist, a museum educator at the Powerhouse Museum and as a lecturer at the University of Sydney in Primary Visual Arts teaching and methodology.
Photo Editor at New York Times
Mikko Takkunen is a photo editor at The New York Times based in Hong Kong. Before joining the Times, Takkunen was the International Photo Editor at Time.com in New York and prior to that he worked as a freelance photographer in London.
In 2007, Takkunen started the popular Photojournalism Links website, for which he curated the best photojournalism published online. Photojournalism Links was published on Time’s LightBox photo blog between 2013-15.
Here are three of the most common questions we get asked. Please check out full FAQ here before contacting us.
There is no time limit, although we encourage people to submit current images which have been produced in the past few years.
It is $30AU (~23USD or ~20EUR) per image.
The student prize entry fee is $1 and is open only to Australian K-12 students.
There is no extra Fee, we take care of all costs.
We use a blind selection process so we can focus on the quality of the photograph, rather than the celebraty of the Photographer. Some of the past winners and finalists include:
Andrew Quilty - Daniella Zalcman - David Chancellor - Fiona Wolf - Giles Clarke - Jarrad Seng - Murray Fredericks - Samantha Everton - Scarlett Coten - Stephen Dupont - Tamara Dean
You can see more past finalists' work here.
