The Walkley Foundation has announced the winners of this year’s Nikon Photography Prizes, with Kate Geraghty named as the winner of the 2021 Nikon Photo of the Year Prize.
‘Fighting COVID-19 Delta’, the empathetic image that won Kate Geraghty the 2021 Nikon Photo of the Year Prize. © Kate Geraghty.
Kate Geraghty is a photographer for The Sydney Morning Herald and her winning image was described by judges as epitomising the year. “This sums up COVID like no other picture,” the judges said. “An empathetic image that explains COVID in Australia: all the loneliness and isolation. There’s a greater story being told; a lot of family members can’t even get that close to patients like this. Geraghty’s skills with, and use of, light make the image.
‘The Yarrick Family of Kunhanhaa’, which won the Nikon Portrait Proze. © Brian Cassey.
Brian Cassey of The Australian, was awarded the Nikon Portrait Prize for ‘The Yarrick Family of Kunhanhaa’, shown above, which depicts mother, Shaylene Yarrick, bedding down five of the children who sleep in the lounge of her two-bedroom house, which regularly sleeps up to 22 members of her extended family. The judges felt Brian Cassey’s stunning family portrait told them a great deal about its subjects, from where they live to how they communicate. They said: “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 lighting is just beautiful and the circular motion of the composition means the faces keep drawing the eye around, finding something new each time.”
Click here to view the winning images in the other categories of this year’s competition.