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WINNER
PHOTO OF THE YEAR
FIRE WATCH
EMMA FRATER
@emmafraterphotography
Although her image was taken in May 2018 during a hazard reduction burn, scenes like this could have just as easily been captured in many parts of Australia last summer during our horror 2019/20 bushfire season. Here, the viewer is witness to the devastating spectacle of a huge plume of smoke and ash towering over Mount Solitary in the Blue Mountains, during the first reduction burn in the area for more than 25 years.
For Blue Mountains local Emma Frater, as soon as she heard the burn was happening she was off with her camera to the nearest viewpoint to capture it.
“I took quite a few shots of the smoky valley and the firebombing helicopters, but the man standing alone with his hand on his hip really caught my eye,” she says.
“He struck me as a strong and resilient character, and I moved into position to shoot him from behind with the billowing smoke framing him. I headed back later at night to photograph the glowing embers, however it was the photograph of the man watching the burning landscape that set the scene for me.”
WHAT THE JUDGES’ SAID
TIM LEVY: The level of photography for this year was incredible. But in the end, images that stand out really do have that ‘Je ne sais quoi’ factor. This image to me was not only fright- eningly awe inspiring, but it was also topical, uniquely Australian and also had subtle images within it which can lead to a ‘bigger picture’ and further questioning. The gentleman watch- ing is of an older generation and to
his right, is the younger generation. They are the people who will inherit the world from ‘him’. Will our older politicians ever admit climate change is real and that their legacy could be a ‘Mad Maxian’ denatured wilderness? Or is it just part of the inescapable Australian cycle of growth, destruc- tion and rejuvenation?
JACQUES VAN AS: This image speaks to every Australian, and anyone who knew or has been directly affected by bush- fires would understand what was going on in this image. The man gazing over the fires with a separate group of onlook- ers watching the fires ravage the Austra- lian landscape was something we all went through last year, and this image has captured that feeling of helplessness in one single frame.
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