The Mono Awards is Australia and New Zealand's largest competition dedicated to the art of monochrome photography. So, I am stoked to share that my image ‘Spider and the Dew’ has placed in the Top 20 at Number 14 in the ‘Animals’ category.
Monochrome photography is all about your tonal range so choosing images for this comp is in stark contrast to choosing impactful colour images. As a monochrome image does not have the true colours of an image, these images fall into the more abstract genre of photography and are often considered to be more arty! Since monochrome imagery was where photography started, these images can also appear to be timeless!
The Mono Awards attracted over 4,000 entries this year from photographers around Australia and New Zealand in the three categories - Animals, People and Places. Since it’s inception five years ago, this competition has become incredibly popular. It is an incredible privilege to have been included as a finalist and I am looking forward to seeing my image in print when the Capture magazine comes out soon.
You can see the Top 40 in each of the three categories on the Mono Awards facebook page. The People's Choice voting is now open so I would really appreciate your vote with an emoji if my image speaks to you. https://www.facebook.com/themonoawards
The image with the most Likes by 2pm AEST, 29 September 2023 will be the People's Choice winner.
My image Spider and the Dew has done really well for me in competition winning Gold in an international circuit and also being shortlisted in the Mosman Photographic Awards. I am particularly excited because this image was shot in my home garden. Animal images tend to be from quite wild and remote places, so I’m grateful to the St Andrew’s Cross spiders who made my garden their home during the spring and summer of last year!
In addition to the image I entered in the Animals category, I also entered one image in Places and a few in People. I know that a competition like The Mono Awards is looking for images that are a little outside the box.
I rarely convert one of my aerial abstracts into monochrome because I feel they just don’t seem to work without the colour. But I was keen to see how the judges might consider ‘Tree Patterns’ in monochrome—an image that had been selected for the Capture Annual Magazine last year. I am happy with the result of a Highly Commended, but I don’t think I will be converting my aerial abstracts into monochrome any time soon!
I was keen to have a go at all three genres at the Mono Awards. Here is my People Image.
Portrait photography was my first love. I loved sitting down with someone and recording their story before I picked up my camera. I found it often put them at ease and helped me form a better connection with them. Unless it is a candid shot, having your portrait taken is an uncomfortable process for most people. Having a laugh first is a good way to break the ice and reveal a bit of your humanity.
For a long time my portrait work was done at street markets or while travelling and always in natural light. I loved finding people with weather beaten faces in their natural environments.
I often find that we grow as creatives when we are dancing on the edge of our comfort zone. For a long time, using external lights and working with models was the edge of mine. It was a place I didn’t really dare to venture to or explore. I recently purchased some studio lights and it has helped me become more conscious about light—where it is coming from, it’s colour and strength, as well as learning how to pose a model.
While this image was not taken in my living room, I enjoyed having the chance to work with Marie at a nude art shoot organised in town earlier this year. This image is called ‘Strength’ because that was the emotion that Marie conveyed to me as she danced before my lens. I loved how at ease she was in her beautiful body and her capacity to put me at ease as well.
Marie is a full-time nomadic art model and I loved her story of travelling the world to share her passion with other creatives. She isn’t one for many words and finds dance and modelling the perfect way to quietly express herself. I was happy to capture a little of her confidence and spirit in this image that also achieved a Highly Commended in the recent mono awards!