Winners have been announced for the 15th Head On Photo Awards, which attracted thousands of entries from more than 30 different countries.

Winner of the 2019 Head On Portrait prize was Juliet Taylor with her portrait ‘Unlucky’, reproduced above. Juliet’s comment on the picture is: Pioneertown sits in the basin of the San Bernardino High Desert, where it is so black at night you can barely see a foot in front of you. Sheryl sits in her taxi outside Pappy & Harriet’s bar, waiting for her husband to finish drinking so she can take him home. Runners up were Chris Bekos in second place and Nadide Goksun in third.

Winners and finalists in the Head On Portrait prize are currently on display at the Festival Hub, Paddington Town Hall, 249 Oxford Street, until 19 May.


The 2019 Head On Landscape prize was won by Bruce Haswell with a picture titled ‘Blackpool, UK, 2016’, shown above. Runners up were Itamar Freed with ‘Arizona Diptych’ in second place and Joel Jimenez with ‘When the dust settles’ in third place. The NSW Landscape prize was won by Chris Round with ‘The Big Trout, Adaminaby, NSW’.

Winners and finalists in the Head On Landscape prize will be on display at the Parliament of NSW, 6 Macquarie Street until 30 May.

The 2019 Head On Mobile prize was taken out by Mel Meek for ‘Fruit crush’. The associated comment states: On a hot day, the whole family was at the beach, My niece had been swimming all day and it was time for a rest. I looked up and took a photo that was not typical of our family photos, no silly faces or asking them to pose. I found myself asking what is she thinking about? It was the first time I saw her not as a child but as becoming so grown up. Runners up were Lulu Pinkus with ‘Cloud surfing’ and Jennie Groom with ‘Weed on ice’.

Winners and finalists in the Head On Mobile prize are currently on display at the Festival Hub, Paddington Town Hall, 249 Oxford Street, until 19 May.

First place in the Student competition went to Aimee Sluga for ‘The last goodbye’. Her comment stated: My grandma was brought into hospital with severs pressure sores, dementia, pneumonia and weighing only 45 kg. She is completely reliant on Nurses and no longer knows who I am. Although she was smiling, you could tell she was in pain and it wasn’t a genuine smile, as though she was just copying my smile. I was shocked to see her this way and wanted to capture the sadness in the photo before she passed away.

Second and third places were taken by James Dryden for ‘Spilt milk’ and  Sonia Judo for ‘Change’, respectively.

Winners and finalists in the Head On Student prize will be on display at Paddington Reservoir Gardens, 251-255 Oxford Street, until 19 May.

See details on the HeadOn website.