High School Student Photography Awards 2023 - Winners Announced.
Congratulations to the overall winner - Quinlan Hayes from Monbulk College VIC!
2nd place runner up - Dakota Rowe from Nazareth Catholic College SA - Image “Conflicted”
3rd place runner up - Elliot Brown from Narrabundah College ACT - Image “It Calls”
With this being the competitions inaugural year, we weren’t exactly sure what to expect. We put out the call to high school students across Australia and the response has exceeded our wildest expectations. Our aim was always to encourage high school students to express their creativity and originality through the medium of Photography. The quality of the images submitted truly speaks to a generation of talented young Australians.
We would like to thank all of the students, teachers, parents, our wonderful judging panel and our sponsors for helping to make these awards possible. We look forward to seeing the competition grow from strength to strength in the years to come.
The exhibition will be in the gallery Friday 24 February – Friday 17 March 2023
Pre-order the 2023 commemorative book.
The commemorative book celebrates the talent, creativity and diversity of the students who entered by showcasing their work in a beautiful hard cover photobook and features one image from all students who submitted work and all images submitted by the winners and runners up.
*Please be aware the book is only available by pre-order from Friday 24 Feb - Friday 10 March 2023.
The CCP VET Program
Our vibrant VET in High school curriculum is developed especially for high school students who want to get a qualification and gain a head start on their photography career before leaving school. We foster a creative and inclusive environment for students to flourish and thrive. With have both online and in-person study options available, students can access our VET program no matter where they are in Australia.
GALLERY
Overall winner - Quinlan Hayes from Monbulk College VIC!
1st place winner - Quinlan Hayes - “Unsettled”
Artists statement: “Through my work, I try to convey a dream-like surrealist quality. I aim to leave my viewers with a feeling of nostalgia, melancholy, and desire. "Paint Them Red" inspired by Alice in wonderland explores themes of deception and humans' desire for irrational control. I created "The Lost Falls" to represent an almost meditative dreamlike state. It shows nature subverted, a landscape almost too good to be true. "Unsettled" is meant to be well... unsettling, the emptiness of the chairs begs questions of the audience, 'Why are they empty?' 'Whose house is it?' the otherwise emptiness of the room also represents abandonment and hints towards a tragedy.” - Quinlan Hayes
2nd place runner up - Dakota Rowe from Nazareth Catholic College SA - Image “Conflicted”
Artists statement: “My work explores two different themes - the feeling of confliction, and the feeling of being lost. These two themes have been critical emotions I've experienced during my last year of schooling, as I head into the next chapter of my life not knowing what comes next and still longing to have my childhood back. The red and blue colours within my 'Conflicted' piece accentuates these aspects, with the red representing the excitement I have for a life without school, while at the same time the sadness I experience, as evident in through the blue tones. I purposely made my model face the camera to show my progression forward, even with the confliction I experience. My other piece, Lost in the Fields, highlights how I feel lost after leaving high school while also free to do as I wish. This is portrayed through the field/forest setting as its openness expresses the freedom I have, while the model's gaze shows how I am reluctant to explore this and move on.” - Dakota Rowe
3rd place runner up - Elliot Brown from Narrabundah College ACT - Image “It Calls”
Artists statement: “These three works were separately made and each explore different pathways I have taken to try and better my photography. "It calls" was made as part of an ongoing theme of mine exploring the deep connection humans have to the water, "Abstract (Pine Mushroom)" abstracted natural elements that surrounded me and focused on the use of alternative processes and the importance of staying attentive to your environment, and "Valerie" was done as part of a series/ installation on my grandmother and her home - which aimed to create a portrait of a person (her) without anyone being featured in the photographs.” - Elliot brown
Honourable mentions
TOP 30 - Will be exhibited in The Light Gallery
Unsettled by Quinlan Hayes
Conflicted by Dakota Rowe
It calls by Elliot Brown
Flowers by James Kwan
Rainbow Web Charlotte Dahlenburg
Aninel Lay's Photo 2
Natures Reclamation by Carlos Gray Claveria
Boost By Riley Hinton
Right Place Wrong Time by Isobel Meyer
Journey Robert Wu
Alexander Brunton 2
untitled 1 by Jasmine Price
Silent Youth 1 By Byron Wilmot
Untitled by Flynn Burrage
Painting the future By Riley Hinton
untitled 2 by Jasmine Price
Passion by Ethan Sculley
DANCING SILHOUETTE BY YASMIN KOUWENHOVEN
Alexander Brunton Untitled
Sideways Man - Tinka Schutt
Little Intricacies by Thomas Barnett
Contrast Portrait by Cameron Lee
Half sick of shadows - Fleur Mew
Diffluvio by Sequoia Pather
Parramatta Geometry by Anastacia Wanandy
Time passing by Charlotte Dahlenburg
Ropes by Lily French
Power by Isabel Daltrey
Untitled by Aninel Lay
Right Place Wrong Time 3 by Isobel Meyer