From international recognition to finding a niche in burger photography, we caught up with their next steps and successes.
SEPA 2021 Exhibition
Welcome to the SUNSTUDIOS Emerging Photographer Award 2021, presented this year in a socially distanced-friendly online format. Now in its 11th year, SEPA continues to discover and showcase the best new image makers, helping break down the barriers early career image makers face in establishing a career.
SEPA 2021 is a showcase of 40 finalist works across photo and video. Four main category winners and two People’s Choice prizes will share in a flexible $25k prize pool, helping to resource recipients through the next stage of their careers.
SEPA’s first People’s Choice prize was awarded this year. One finalist from photo and one finalist from video as voted by the public won $500 to be spent across services at SUNSTUDIOS.
Photo - Faces
Photo - Faces
James Malone
No Face, Only a Dark Place
CATEGORY WINNER
Photo - Faces
Photo - Faces
Alisha Gore
End of the line
People's Choice Award Winner (Photo)
“My role helps usher in death with dignity and in a way that aligns with the dying person’s values.” - Mariam Ardati
Photo - Faces
Photo - Faces
Elizabeth Wright
Pirate Life
Photo - Faces
Photo - Faces
Jeffrey Xu
Untitled
Photo - Faces
Photo - Faces
Jorge Serra
Ok Pretty
The dirt and ash symbolising what has come before them, a shedding of the past, while the green breaks through in contrast representing renewal and growth
Photo - Faces
Photo - Faces
Julia Onufreichuk
Chaos in Motion I
Photo - Faces
Photo - Faces
Luis Campbell
Drowning
Photo - Faces
Photo - Faces
Nick Turner
Levels
Photo - Faces
Photo - Faces
Phoebe Kelly
Antonia
Photo - Faces
Photo - Faces
Paulos Zeleke
Blue
Photo - Faces
Photo - Faces
Rusty Crawshaw
The Dengs
Photo - Faces
Photo - Faces
Sarah Malone
a family gathers
Photo - Faces
Photo - Faces
Su Cassiano
Marcus in the bush II
Marcus's portrait is part of an ongoing photographic project exploring ideas of masculinity and some of its alternative representations in contemporary Australia. It aims to create a space for exploring masculine vulnerability as a remedy against toxicity.
Photo - Faces
Photo - Faces
Teva Cosic
Untitled (mormor anna)
Photo - Faces
Photo - Places
Photo - Places
Ryan Cantwell
Close Comfort, Distant Trouble
CATEGORY WINNER
Photo - Places
Photo - Places
Adrian Brown
Cement Trucks
Photo - Places
Photo - Places
Alexander Cooke
Untitled (tarp), Hanoi, 2018
Photo - Places
Photo - Places
Amy Piddington
Pipe Dream
Photo - Places
Photo - Places
Chris Bekos
Isolation
Photo - Places
Photo - Places
Christine Goerner
Mountain Ash 13
Photo - Places
Photo - Places
Daniel Walton
Sun Stroke
Photo - Places
Photo - Places
Fiona Little
Motel
Photo - Places
Photo - Places
Jessica Connell
Keeping them safe
Photo - Places
Photo - Places
Julia Onufreichuk
Chaos in Motion II
Photo - Places
Photo - Places
Mark Forbes
Conversations
Photo - Places
Photo - Places
Mark Forbes
Pantone Steps
Photo - Places
Photo - Places
Mattia Panunzio
Charlie's kitchen
Photo - Places
Photo - Places
Ryley Clarke
Things that Lean
Lost and buried memories resurface. Spaces, objects and environments reveal themselves. Past and present relationships, the familial and the self, form new meanings. The once indistinct blur that prevailed my family’s history and my identity becomes an interplay between absence and presence, disconnection and affiliation, experiences and imaginations.
Connecting the parallels of narrative and documentary, the body of work seeks to reconsider the notions of my ancestral tree and identity. Questioning the photograph’s ability to precisely recall the past, it looks towards the limitations of recognising who we are. It contemplates how we structure ourselves to belong within the world, narrating the fragility of our memories, our ancestral tree and the self. It breathes as an entity, living in the past and present. Often in motion, occasionally lost in the fragments between, as we navigate through a world of various shifting-selves. Ever-searching for a present desire for connection.
Photo - Places
Video - Faces
Video - Faces


Video - Faces
Jonathan McIntyre
Just Appreciate
CATEGORY WINNER
Video - Faces


Video - Faces
Kamilla Musland
Not Everyone
People's Choice Winner (Video)
Video - Faces
Dillon Mak
The Truth
Video - Faces


Video - Faces
Levi Cranston
Trajectory
It is a film of looking, and an evolving relationship of what is looked at. A hollywood simulacrum of the Pudovkin effect
The images were always planned for recyclability; to put it another way, a rhythmically-alive USSR montage theory puzzle. With dynamite in it. That's fun.
Video - Faces


Video - Faces
Matthew Maule
The Clincher
Video - Faces


Video - Faces
Matty Smith
Manny
Video - Places
Video - Places


Video - Places
Ryan Andrew Lee
Wonnarua
CATEGORY WINNER
Video - Places


Video - Places
Daniel Kuberek
The Book
Video - Places


Video - Places
Faezeh Alavi
Not To Be
Video - Places


Video - Places
My Hope
James Hiscutt
Video - Places


Video - Places
Murray Enders
Lawson Myna
Video - Places


Video - Places
Peter Marko
The Penguin Parade
SEPA 2021 WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT
MEET THE SEPA JUDGES
Photo – Adam Ferguson, Georges Antoni, Nicky Catley
Video – Andy Taylor, Carolyn Constantine, Dave May
Previous finalists
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