The Australian Professional Photography Awards (APPA) is one of the most important dates on the calendar of a lot of Australian photographers, no matter what they shoot. It’s three days of nerve-wracking excitement watching prints, books and albums being judged by Australia’s best photographers, in front of live audiences. The judging takes place as part of a huge digital expo, and it’s a time for photographers to come together from all over the country to celebrate the very best of this incredible industry. So naturally, the time is also full of social events, and culminates in a gala presentation dinner, where all the category winners are announced and AIPP members are awarded honours.
This was my fourth year entering the APPAs, and although I didn’t quite reach the lofty goals I was aiming for this year, I am happy that I have maintained my record of consistently receiving an award for every image that I’ve ever entered. This year I came away with 5 Silver awards; one for my beloved Dear Toby book (entered in the photographic book category), three for prints in the family category, and one in the portrait category. Two of these were Silver with Distinction, so over all, it’s my best awards result to date, and at the AIPP presentation night on Monday, I received my Associateship, which is the first step on the AIPP honours ladder. The best part about that was getting up on stage to receive my yellow ribbon alongside so many of my dear friends and colleagues who’ve also been in the industry (and entering awards) for about as long as I have (which is not very long!). I am only one point off my Masters now, and although all it would have taken to receive that this year was if one of my prints had have scored Gold instead of Silver, I’m pretty chuffed that I’ve reached that level in only four years, two of which were as an ’emerging member’.
Tonight, myself and my fellow Canberran AIPP photographers celebrated receiving the first ever President’s Cup, a new award handed to the State with the highest average scores at APPA. I am so proud to be part of this talented little crew in Canberra!!! I sat next to David Paterson, who received the award of Grand Master at Monday night’s awards, a title which takes around 20 years to reach. That’s the result of always striving for excellence, never missing a year of APPA, and maintaining extraordinary passion and commitment to your profession and the industry. An inspiration! That’s enough chitchat for now, but if you want to read more about my thoughts on the awards, there’s always this old favourite.
Here are my 2013 award winning prints…
