Enter Head On Photo Awards 2023
Photography excellence through innovation
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Head On Photo Awards Entries Open
Entries for 2023 are now open! The Head On Photo Awards represent a global selection of the best work from emerging and established photographers.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year
From the Natural History of Museum in London, this exhibition features over 100 exceptional images which capture fascinating animal behaviour, spectacular species and the breathtaking diversity of the natural world.
Sydneyphiles Reimagined
Sydneyphiles Reimagined — a contemporary interpretation of photographer William Yang’s breakthrough 1977 exhibition. View over 200 images, including vintage prints, and become immersed in the heady days of Yang’s early career and the aftermath of the show’s success.
Latest from the Magazine
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What is environmental photography?
As you may or may not have heard, Head On Foundation, in an exciting partnership with Australian Geographic, have announced the inaugural Head On Environmental Awards by Australian Geographic!
5 best second-hand cameras
While we all love that new-camera smell, the market for second-hand cameras is growing like never before.
10 women landscape photographers
Women have long been excluded from the landscape canon. While many women have taken their rightful place as preeminent portrait photographers, we still often ignore women’s environmental pursuits.
15 portrait photographers you should know
While we all know the Annies and Richards of portrait photography, portraiture has expanded way beyond images of celebrities.
Recent exhibitions
Recent exhibitions
Queertography
Queertography is an insightful installation of photographic art that explores LGBTQIA+ experiences caught on camera.
Head On Portrait Awards
The Head On Portrait Awards (est. 2004) is a prestigious competition that recognizes the talents of portrait photographers at all career stages. Prizes are awarded to artists who demonstrate a unique visual literacy of portraiture and innovative approaches to the traditional portrait form, expanding our idea of what a portrait can be.
Head On Landscape Awards
The Head On Landscape Awards (est. 2013) celebrate innovation in landscape photography. The selected finalists encompass landscape photographers who push the boundaries of landscape as a visual genre and explore how we navigate the spaces we inhabit and the spaces that exclude us.
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2022 Head On Photo Awards catalogue $70
Over the years, the Awards has evolved, forming the heart of the festival, for which the Head On Foundation has awarded over $600,000 in cash and product. In 2022 the Head On Photo Awards included three categories – Portrait, Landscape, and Student. A diverse group of creative industry practitioners select work without artists’ names, so […]
Paper Tigers book $60
A celebration of the best of Australian photojournalism, the Paper Tigers exhibition features sixty images from sixty of the best Australian photojournalists. The need for truthful journalism has never been more critical. It is through the lens of these photographers that we understand and experience much of the world’s events. Look back at the most critical moments through recent Australian history, and the images by which we remember them.
Looking out from within by Julia Fullerton-Batten $75
Covid-19 came. Life changed around the world. For ever. Award-winning fine-art photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten felt she couldn’t sit around helpless. During her evening permitted exercise, walking around her local neighbourhood, she noticed people looking out of their windows onto a newly desolate world. This was sufficient for her to formulate how she would visually portray […]
Agave Love by Phil Bayly $80
I have always known Tequila as something of a bad boy spirit. It had a bohemian image wild and crazy, a freethinking spirit, uninhibited in many ways, Mezcal on the other hand was more esoteric. Travelling in Mexico in the 80’s with no internet was typically through word of mouth, trial and error and mostly […]
First nations photo artists
10 incredible photos by indigenous photographers to celebrate NAIDOC week!
Image credit: Mervyn Bishop, courtesy of National Indigenous Australians Agency and Josef Lebovic Gallery, Sydney Happy NAIDOC Week everyone! This year’s theme for NAIDOC is ‘heal country’. To celebrate Indigenous history, culture and achievement, and recognise that country and identity are intertwined, we are acknowledging some of the incredible photographs taken by First Nations photographers. Caution: […]
Dangerous stars
Dangerous stars honours the lives of rabbits, birds, spiders, and the spectrum of other species with whom we share this planet. It draws on my personal experience of Country while tracing my fami-ly’s ancestry. Arising from my deep ties with Bpangerang people, from whom I am descended, and Warl-piri friends who’ve walked with me over the decades of my search.
Michael Cook
While he’s known for images that tackle often confronting subjects involving white Australia’s relationship with Indigenous culture, most of the time, there’s also a whimsy to the works – what Cook calls an openness or softness – which helps make them accessible. But his humour has its genesis in a childhood defence mechanism.
Head On Foundation acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we work and live. We pay our respects to the Elders past, present and future, and extend this to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Head On Photo Awards
The Head On Photo Awards represent a global selection of the best work from emerging and established photographers across four categories: Portrait | Landscape | Environmental | Student