GLUED ACTIVIST STICKS IN MINDS OF JUDGES
AN award-winning Geelong photographer has taken home yet another award for a shot of a woman who glued herself to ExxonMobil’s headquarters in protest at fossil fuel companies.
Photographer and photojournalist Matt Hrkac has won at the 2022
Sony Alpha Awards in the editorial category for Glued On, a powerful photo from a series of pictures showing police prying two glued-on activists from the company’s windows and arresting them.
The winning photograph shows a woman looking directly at the camera from where she has glued herself to the entrance. In front of her a sign reads “Exxon fossil fools”.
Along with Ampol and Viva
Energy fuel terminals, ExxonMobil was targeted on several occasions under the banner of “Just Stop It – no more oil, no more gas, no more coal”, according to Mr Hrkac.
Entries into the editorial category were short-listed and photographers asked to submit a written statement and a series of five additional images to “recontextualise” the entry for judging.
“Midway through the Just Stop It campaign, activists took their message to the Australian headquarters of ExxonMobil,” Mr Hrkac said. “This series of images, including the selected image, is taken from this particular action, during which two activists glued themselves to the front entrance of the ExxonMobil building.”
He said activists from the Extinction Rebellion movement co-ordinated non-violent protests in March and April this year with the intent of disrupting these companies “while also drawing attention to the complicity of these companies in fuelling global warming”.