Take an intimate journey through contrasting scenes of connection, resilience and play, and vote for your favourite from 1 August.
The entire nation, including this wedding, held their breath for 17 minutes during the Matilda’s epic penalty shootout against France in the women’s World Cup.
Competition winner - over 18 category
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I took this photo of my beautiful friend for my photography assignment ‘Total Control’ which requires a demonstration of up to three different lighting techniques. This image is for ambient lighting, taken with a head torch that has a red setting on it.
Competition winner - under 18 category
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I came across the Sikh community's culture. I spoke to them and they warmly invited me to take photos. I saw this group of boys at the side, walked up and started photographing. They were amused and reacted differently.
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Amidst the scorching heat of a summer's day in rural Queensland, young Conan discovers the beauty of playing outside at sunset. As the temperature finally cools, the vivid colours of the sky paint a spectacular backdrop for his imagination game of “mud to mud the bad guys”.
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Jon Odams takes line honours in the first ever Psychocross event. An unsanctioned, uncategorised and very unofficial race where some of the country's best cyclists race for not much more than bragging rights and a handful of beers.
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Kobie Dee stands with family and friends on Bidjigal Land, in the former La Perouse Aboriginal Reserve and Mission, where Aboriginal families have lived for more than 7,500 years. The location is a significant symbol of strength and survival for Aboriginal peoples following European invasion, despite its history of oppression and dispossession.
Kobie Dee is a Gomeroi man, rapper and storyteller. With a strong commitment to community work and advocacy, Kobie’s music and message is inspiring the next generation of young people to chase their dreams.
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The Sydney performer and library assistant Katia, in her sunroom in her home in Belmore. This picture captures Katia's exuberant style. She never buys new fashion items. Her wardrobe and world are recycled.
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Boyca Durrurrnga is young Yolŋu boy, born in Gove, NT and living in the Ramingining community, north-east Arnhem Land, garnered recognition when his portrait became a finalist in the esteemed National Photographic Portrait Prize of 2023. He loves hunting barramundi, stingray and kangaroo. His dreaming is the Brolga and Butterfly from his mother’s side, and the Rainbow Serpent from his father’s side. In 2024, Boyca embarked on his second journey away from his homelands, venturing to Byron Bay for his exhibition, The Boy From Ramingining. It was during this time that he formed a profound bond with Daisy, my Afghan Hound, with whom he calls frequently on FaceTime.
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I had been doing a portrait shoot with musician and singer Kirin J Callinan at Sam Fiszman Park. We had wrapped up our shoot and then Kirin wandered away. The landscape was strange but stranger by night, brash 80’s/90's architecture, and neon street lights interrupt an ancient Gadigal, Bidiagal and Birrabirragal land of weathered sandstone.
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7pm on a Friday night, a group of friends play in a suburban pool room. In the sweet spot between league players and late-night revellers, a young woman whose name I forgot to ask or forgot to remember takes her shot.
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Sharing housing is a right of passage for many Australians. Young adults are now considering shared housing as a long-term living arrangement. While not ideal for many, sharing housing allows people to form strong communities outside the traditional nuclear family unit. From the series ‘Home for a time’, this image documents the transient nature of share housing and the flux young people are in.
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Every year, the farming community of Parkes dusts off its bejewelled jumpsuits to celebrate the life, music and the legend of Elvis Presley. A popular feature of the event since its inception has been the annual Elvis rugby game which is always played in a spirit of fun and camaraderie.
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A photo series going on 7 years capturing my life with my 2 daughters, bringing them into my photographic world. Here we are dressed as Victorian vampires at the Victoria and Albert Guesthouse. The girls wanted to dress up as vampires and choose their costumes. This is our world. Dress ups, fun and colour.
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This image of a street performer on stilts, was taken on 3 March 2024, at the yearly Sydney Road street festival, in Brunswick Victoria. What caught my attention, apart from the golden cape, was a tattoo on the back of the performers leg, “made in hell”. Very cool I thought.
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Joshua Shadad, 16, collapses after an intense basketball session with friends in Mount Druitt. The impacts of extreme heat are already evident across western Sydney, arising from a combination of its geography, climate change, and clearing of bushland to pave the way for new developments - exacerbating the 'urban heat island effect'.
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The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, a celebration of pride and progress, brings a burst of colour, energy, unity and diversity to the city of Sydney once a year. A celebration of queer love culture and struggle the parade has been held every year since 1978 to promote awareness of gay lesbian bisexual and transgender issues.
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Every other week after primary school, Sophie (10) and Harry (7) ride their dirt bikes to finish their journey to their father's home located on a farm in Myalla, NSW. They are followed by Lilly, their Jack Russell who often waits near their dirt bikes for them to finish school.
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Weeks before my mother died, she told me she was waiting for a bird to carry her away. I never found out whether her bird came, but I like imagining that it did, and that it cradled her soul as gentle as she cradled my son’s face in this image. My mother and Adelchi, 2023.
I finally felt able to develop the last images that I ever made of mum. I wanted them to be perfect, to be the best images I’d ever made of her. But, of course, they turned out to be something completely different, and much of the film was damaged. With the help of friends we deduced that the film had been damaged by some kind of moisture that had crept into the film, after exposing it. And so one more lesson from mum: when you seek perfection life will always, always throw something very different at you. So, one more gift from mum, who took life on with more enthusiasm, passion and delight than anyone I have ever known, despite the obstacles and difficulties that were thrown her way.
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Lorely Iacullo, her son, Luciano, and her mother Juana Petkoff live in a rental house in Rouse Hill where they raise sheep for sale. The house has been sold and will be demolished and replaced by multiple dwellings similar to its surrounding in this formerly semi-rural area in north-west Sydney. The family now has to find somewhere else to live.
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Francis is a young mother, raising her baby with complex needs in a remote community in the Northern Territory. Like many Indigenous peoples, Francis was never issued her own birth certificate. This left her undocumented, without disability support for her baby and living in a tent. This photograph was captured just minutes after finally receiving her birth certificate at 21 years of age. Francis' relief was palpable.
A few weeks prior, Francis dropped to her knees, overwhelmed, when she finally heard she could be issued a birth certificate. This breakthrough was made possible through the support of the Brave Foundation, helping young parents like Francis navigate these complicated bureaucratic systems, and enabling them to stand strong and thrive.
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Cousin sisters Shauna and Bridget Perdjert from Kardu Thithay Diminin Clan and Murrinhpatha language group, sit on Air Force Hill after practicing cultural burning on Kardu Yek Diminin Country, Wadeye. This work is from Ferguson’s series and monograph, ‘Big Sky’, documenting shrinking small-towns, Aboriginal connection to Country, pastoralism, the impacts of globalisation and the adversity of climate change.
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This photo shows Australian hospitality at its finest as the skating community welcomes Zion Wright at Concrete Skate Supply in Bondi during a meet and greet. The event was crowded with smiling faces and local kids feeling like they were part of a community.
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This photo was taken from atop a hill looking out on the impressive Flinders Ranges in South Australia, a place as visually stunning as it is culturally significant.
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This photo was taken at Okeefes Hut while traversing the alpine Jagungal Wilderness Area with a group of like-minded venturer scouts. This expedition made us appreciate what we have available to us in everyday life that we take for granted; electricity, running water, gas, and comfort. We learnt to live with the minimum.
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The image is the aftermath of Bulli Beach after flooding due to heavy rainfall in Bulli. The man-made stick stent was in the middle of the beach next to heavy waves and sticks everywhere. No matter how heavy the flood, nothing stops Aussies from making good old stick tents.
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Unable to move and starving for a gust of wind, a family of windmills at Queensland Museum Cobb+Co wait patiently in the blazing sun, looking out for a storm to cool themselves down.
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This card was written by my dad. He passed away on 5 June, 6 days before my 13th birthday, I received the card on Father's Day 2023.
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This photo was taken of my younger brother Yuin-River during the summer holidays on one of our coastal drives to Bellambi Beach where our grandmother lives. The photograph is captured in black & white, drawing attention to him and the mountain slopes that stretch all down the coast. I tend to capture Yuin in many of my photos as he is my one and only brother who is living in a house of five girls and needs occasional spotlight on him.
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See the finalists up close in a large format outdoor gallery, outside Customs House from Friday 2 August to Sunday 25 August.
Voting for the People's choice award is now open, votes close 11.59pm 18 August.
Published 15 July 2024, updated 5 August 2024
