The first International Landscape Photographer of the Year has run its course, with many Australians taking home a place from the 2233 entries from around the world.
The winner, based on a folio submission of at least four images, is Christian Fletcher from Western Australia, with his series of ‘industrial’ aerial images.
Photo: Christian Fletcher. Source: Supplied
‘My aim was to produce striking images from the air that had an industrial theme. I am concerned about the path we are heading down. By showing what is beyond the view of most of the public, I hoped to create a conversation about why we are heading down that path and if it is necessary,’ Christian said.
‘Of course it is a very complicated subject and not one tackled lightly. As a photographer I feel it is my duty to capture the world we live in, be it pristine wilderness or industrial oblivion.’
The other major category which was based purely on a single photograph, ‘the Landscape Photograph of the Year’, was won by Craig Parry – another Australian – from Lennox Heads, who also took an aerial image.
Photo: Craig Parry. Source: Supplied
‘In late December 2013 my hometown of Lennox Head in Northern NSW experienced one of its biggest scrubland bushfires in recent history. After crews had finally put out all the spot fires I went in search for that magic abstract image that I had been visualising over that past week as I could see the colours and shapes produced by the fire,’ Craig said.
‘The burnt/black part of the image was the shorter bottle brush and the taller scorched trees are the gums which created the interesting composition which I named “life and death”. The image was captured with my remote Helicam and my Canon 5D mark 3 / 20mm f2.8 Camera settings : 1/500sec f7.1 ISO 250 WB 6100’
It is worth noting that Christian’s aerial photos were taken in a light aircraft, while Craig used a drone.
The runner-up for both categories is Melbourne photographer Tom Putt, for his black and white images taken in Australia and overseas – from sand dunes to snow dunes.
Photo: Tom Putt. Source: Supplied
In third place for the Photographer of the Year is Will Dielenberg, from – yep, you guessed it, Australia.
Photo: William Dielenberg. Source: Supplied
And taking third place for Photograph of the Year is Bas Meelker from the Netherlands.
Bas Meelker. Source: Supplied
But that’s not all. The best 101 landscape images from the competition will be published in a coffee table book that will be available in e-book and hardcopy.
Some may wonder why there are so many Australian winners. While we do boast some of the finest landscape photographers in the world, competition chairman Peter Eastway informed Pro Counter that around half the submissions were from Aussies.
The event was judged by David Burnett (USA), David Ward (UK), Jim M. Goldstein (USA), Jackie Ranken (NZ) and Tony Hewitt (AUS)