Canon Australia Announces Photo5 Winners

Above: Canon Photo5 2013 Winning Images
Row 1, left to right: Kylie Garner, Sally Patterson, Josh Bakkum
Row 2, left to right: Denise McKenzie, Janis Unkovich, Nick Ch’ng

From Canon Australia:

Sydney, Australia, 31 October 2013: Today,Canon Australia announces the six winners of Canon Photo5, Australia and New Zealand’s most creative and original photography competition.

Each year, Canon Photo5 sparks a creative imaging movement across Australia and New Zealand, bringing out and celebrating people’s originality through the inspiration of five everyday objects in a simple brown box. Bringing together everyday people with a range of photography skill levels and creative backgrounds, the Canon Photo5 competition this year saw over 5260 entries with no one entry looking the same.

“The calibre of entries to this year’s competition was phenomenal. There’s an incredibly enthusiastic photography community across both Australia and New Zealand, and it’s amazing to see the originality that five everyday objects bring out in each person,” said Chris Macleod, Manager Consumer Segments & Digital Communications, Canon Australia. “Our Canon Masters, who are some of Australia and New Zealand’s most innovative image makers, were astounded by the results! Each interpretation of the objects was unique to the photographer, so it was no easy task for them to select the winners.”

Coming from as far as Western Australia and Queensland, the 2013 Canon Photo5 winners are:

• Josh Bakkum, Brief One – Reflection, Open brief: “As far as reflections go this has it all. The images shows a lot of imagination, creativity and technique all combined to make this stunning picture. I especially like the combination of remote and time exposure. All in all a great picture." – Judge Mark Horsburgh
• Denise McKenzie, Brief Two – Flour, Contrast: “This photo is striking and mysterious with the clash of red, white and black its strength. Compositionally well captured and a good use of the theme with strong sense of beauty and light.” – Judge Stephen DuPont
• Sally Patterson, Brief Three – Eyes, Personify: “A rather simplistic yet brilliant photograph! Really well shot and framed and finished. A whole new way to say Cartoon Eyes.” – Judge Graham Munro
• Kylie Garner, Brief Four – Jelly, Light: “A stand-out-from-the-crowd shot that moves away from a contrived black room and artificial light. Fundamental photography techniques have been applied to give jelly the focus and its intrigue when lit via natural light. Love the short depth of field to control where we look. Good post with colours dropped back in the background and highlight red on the Jelly.” – Judge Eugene Tan
• Janis Unkovich, Brief Five – Shadows, Stencil: “The photographer has taken the brief and created an idea that goes further than the actual stencil. It's a nice concept and well executed.” – Judge Jonas Peterson
• Nick Ch’ng, Portfolio competition, All briefs: “This portfolio stood out because of the use of selective colour. Black and white with the main subject in colour. Great ideas, well balanced compositions that all work well in expressing the individual briefs. Shows creative flair.” – Judge Jackie Rankin

Photo5 starts with everyday items in a simple brown box. This year, the items in the box were flour, cartoon eyes, jelly and a stencil, each designed to inspire people to use new subject matter in different ways and bring out their own unique perspectives. These items each represented one brief, in addition to the People’s Brief, “Reflections,” and the “Portfolio” competition.

This year a new line-up of Australian and New Zealand photography expert judges was carefully selected from Canon’s Masters program to come on board to guide entrants and determine the most creative images in the competition: Mark Horsburgh, Stephen Dupont, Graham Munro, Eugene Tan, Jonas Peterson and Jackie Rankin.

The winner of each brief and the winner of the Portfolio Competition will win an incredible creative photography workshop with Jackie Ranken and Mike Langford in New Zealand. Accommodation and flights are included with the workshop prize. Plus, each winner will receive an exhibition quality wall hanging of their choice from photoPICO.

Additionally, Rebecca Sullivan was awarded the voters’ prize, winning a Canon PowerShot G15.

To view the entries and winners of this year’s Canon Photo5 competition visit the Photo5 website.