PORTRAIT OF FAMILY LIFE IS PICTURE PERFECT
A CAIRNS photographer has won a prestigious Walkley Award for a photo he took about chronic overcrowding in the Mornington Island community.
Freelancer Brian Cassey won the Nikon Portrait prize and shot the image as part of an essay documenting the plight of the Indigenous residents of the remote Gulf of Carpentaria township.
“I have won quite a few awards but the Walkleys excite me because they are Australian and it’s with your peers,” Mr Cassey said.
In awarding the prize, the judges
said the stunning portrait told them a great deal about its subjects, from where they live to how they communicate.
“It’s not easy to get that many people in a shot, compose an image and get it to work. One child makes eye contact but everyone else is doing their own thing,” the judges said. “The lighting is just beautiful and the circular motion of the composition means the faces keep drawing the eye around, finding something new each time.”
Mr Cassey was pleasantly surprised to receive numerous phone calls about the award win on Thursday.