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An at-home photography project by Victorian photog- rapher and mother of three Julie Thomas has taken out the overall award in the 2020 Photographer of the Year presented by Nokia.
Now in its eighth year, the competition is the largest of its kind for amateur photographers in Australasia and for 2020 had a prize pool valued at more than $30,000.
Thomas’ series Camouflage was captured dur- ing Victoria’s extended coronavirus lockdown, and depicts her 12-year-old daughter Madi in a series of elaborate and beautifully constructed portraits.
For judge Sally Brownbill, the images entered this year were thought provoking, well planned and well executed. “Perhaps this year the photographers had more time to sit and observe or felt less time pressure in deciding what they wanted to enter into the awards,”
she reflected. “Whatever the reason, the calibre of work I was lucky enough to view was of a standard never before seen in these awards.”
More than 3,000 entries were received in the an- nual competition which, for the major categories, challenges photographers to shoot four images that work together as a cohesive series.
From macro insects to striking architectural abstracts and every genre in between, over the following pages you can see our winners and runners-up along with comments from our judges on why they choose the images they did.
Before you turn the page, we’d like to thank our amazing sponsors. Without their support we sim- ply couldn’t run Photographer of the Year. Nokia, SanDisk, WD, World Photo Adventures, Haida, MSI, Lacie and Seagate – thank you.
To our judges tasked with choosing their favourite images from such a deep and talented pool of entrants, we don’t envy you, but we do really appreciate your work. You can see our judging panel on page 80.
And finally, to all our entrants, thank you for your amazing entries this year and your willingness to share your work with like-minded photographers.
In a year when photography has been both a challenge and an outlet, we were stunned at the depth and quality of the work submitted this year. To all our winners and final- ists who are published here, congratulations. But even if you’re not one of them, or didn’t receive the result you were hoping for, we do hope you enjoyed the experience of entering Photographer of the Year.
The competition will be back, bigger than ever, in 2021.
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© JULIE THOMAS
© EMMA FRATER © ANDREW RAGUSE