Zoe Norfolk has placed top in two major national photography competitions this year, reports Miriam Balanescu

A Muswell Hill resident has placed top in two major national photography competitions this year.

Last month, Zoe Norfolk was shortlisted for the British Journal of Photography’s Portrait of Britain Award with an image of her friend’s daughter Gracie.

The prolific Muswell Hill photographer also nabbed the silver award in the Association of Photographers (AOP) annual AOP Photography Awards for her series of photos taken on her son’s birthday every year since he was born in 2003. The work is titled Every Year I Take a Photo and featured in The Guardian last month.

Zoe told HCP: “This year I’ve approached my career differently, trying different avenues to showcase my work. Portrait of Britain was one of two things I tried and achieved success with, the other being the AOP awards – I received a silver award for my long-term self-portrait project with my son.”

The Portrait of Britain Award is the UK’s biggest annual photography competition, culminating in an exhibition of 100 winning images shown across the country through a digital screen display held for one month. Meanwhile, 200 shortlisted entries – including Zoe’s – are published in a Portrait of Britain book.

The competition, which aims to capture ‘the many faces of modern Britain’, is now in its sixth year.

Zoe said: “It’s the first time I’ve entered. My work is often shot landscape in format so I decided to shoot a few images ‘portrait’ that would work well for the submission of the award. The shot of Gracie was the one that was chosen.

“Gracie is a friend’s daughter – they live in Essex and a group of us went down for the day. This is one of the shots I took on the seafront in Frinton.”

Meanwhile, the AOP Photography Awards are now in their 38^th year, open to AOP accredited and assisting photographer members. The association describes the competition as the “Oscars” of the photography world.

Gold and silver winners were announced at an AOP annual showcase event in September.

AOP CEO Isabelle Doran commented: “It’s like opening a surprise gift box of delights, you’re not sure what you’re going to get but when you open it up you find a delightful myriad of visual treasures. This year’s finalists and winners are a delicious treat for the eyes.”

To add to these achievements, Zoe – well-known in her local community as the ‘Muswell Hill photographer’, the alias she posts under on social media – also published a book in September, titled Muswell Hill in Photos.

Zoe added: “It’s been a great year for my photography as well as publishing a book of my photos of Muswell Hill which I’ve sold nearly 300 copies of.”

To find out more visit: zoenorfolk.com.

Directing us to some standout moments in the book, Xiaopeng lands on Chris Maggio’s work. When first running the story by the Same Paper team, Chris said that he wanted to hang around in New York taking serious portraits, only to then retouch them with a smiling filter. Though, instead of being met by sombre faces, Chris ended up capturing a horde of smiling faces. Xiaopeng also highlights Feng Li’s photographs of a pig, a visual story that doesn’t include smiles but will certainly induce them. Apparently one day when travelling home Feng came across a stray baby pig, and, thinking it was a miniature pig, took it home. It soon became clear that the pic was in fact a regular sized pig, and now after the care of his family, the pig is pretty massive. “The pig has stayed with his family over eight years, and become an important family member,” Xiaopeng says.

When it came to the design of the Closing Ceremony, the studio wanted people to see it and consider it a general, all-encompassing magazine rather than simply a photography publication. To tackle this, the designer Juergen Maelfeyt was enlisted on the project to make a magazine that was “mixed” and allowed the images to interfere with one another, rather than taking the minimalist approach more commonly adopted by photography magazines, Xiaopeng explains. For the title, Juergen created a rubbery, spiky font that looks like “tigers teeth” mid-laugh, and for the two alternating front covers a picture of Feng’s pig and a portrait of Roe Ethridge’s grinning daughter were selected – both of which trigger “joyful feelings”. As soon as the audience lays eyes on the cover, Xiaopeng hopes that they realise they’re about to encounter something funny.

Primarily, Xiaopeng says the magazine is about expression and enjoyment; expression for those whose work is included, and enjoyment for those who encounter their work. He hopes as well as providing creative inspiration, the magazine might trigger its readers’ imaginations, reminding them of moments and stories that caused a smile to break out on their face.

For Nadezda, creating with intention affects every fraction of a second of every exposure; every gesture and movement of the mask; and every single processing choice. As such, when you look at her works, they have the pensive breadth of an oil landscape and the feeling of a photograph’s crucial second. “I have only three seconds to complete multiple exposures – often a dozen or more – use brushes to fling and spray chemicals, gravity to move it on the plate, and float paper using multiple masks with one hand, while flicking the light on and off with another,” she tells us. But, Nadezda still finds opportunity to embrace the limitations of the process, referring to it as “liberating”. She adds: “There’s a thrill to it, anticipation, excitement. It’s never stale. So much is happening at the same time, I’m fully immersed in the moment, holding my breath and relying on my intuition.”

It is difficult to capture the breadth of nature, the hills, the valleys, the waves and sun in all their picturesque glory. Nadezda manages all of this though, as well as a balance between ‘opposing’ forces that has become synonymous with her oeuvre – the physical and metaphysical, movement and stillness, time and timelessness, and singular and universal. With her book in collaboration with HackelBury Fine Art having come out earlier this year, each page brings us closer to the textures she masterfully assembles in her works. And in turn, each of these images bring us that little bit closer to the wonders of nature.

One Picture Book Two #33 : Elemental Forms is published by Nazraeli Press, you can find out more here.

Photographer Christina Hartnell has spent the last ten years capturing life’s precious moments. When a cancer diagnosis turned her world upside down this year, she realized just how precious life can be. She is now launching a photography project to highlight local teen cancer survivors as they check off their bucket list items.

In June, Hartnell discovered a bump right above her collarbone. She soon received her heartbreaking diagnosis: follicular Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. 

As a mom to a toddler, Hartnell’s world came crashing down.

“I was mad, frustrated, hating life, hating the world,” Hartnell said. “I did everything I was supposed to do in life. No drugs, hardly drinking, no smoking, exercising… so why me?”

When Hartnell began treatment, that anger turned to purpose. 

Channeling her lessons from photography, she was determined to view things through a “different lens.” She decided to launch the “Superhero Project” to give back to teenage cancer patients and survivors.

“Normally you look at the older people and the really young children,” Hartnell said.” The teenagers kind of get overlooked with cancer.”

With her camera in hand, Hartnell plans to capture photos of these teens as they complete their bucket list items. Whether it’s driving a sports car or riding horseback, she wants to give these “superheroes” a chance to fly. 

“I want to give back as much as I possibly can,” Hartnell said. “This project is going to be for high school students between the ages of 16-18, who have fought cancer or are currently going through it.” 

Hartnell says she plans to collaborate with local vendors and complete 30 photo sessions over the next two years. 

“They can have a photo shoot to make them feel amazing and special for a couple of hours at least,” Hartnell said. 

As she completes her own cancer treatment, this is a project she hopes brings healing to those in front of the camera — and the woman behind it. 

Hartnell is still looking for teens to be a part of the “Superhero Project. Those interested or know someone who may be interested are asked to submit a form on her website.

Nature art category – Fields of Dreams, J Fritz Rumpf (USA)

Stefan Gerrits, a judge, says: ‘This striking image immediately caught the jury’s attention with its stunningly vibrant colours and unique patterns. The rich, vivid hues of the gills are beautifully accentuated by the soft forest light creating a mesmerising effect that draws the viewer into this maze of gills. The surreal, or otherworldly, scene is both intriguing and alluring. It provokes the imagination, making the viewer wonder about the origins of such an incredible, mystical, dreamlike, sight of nature.’

Photograph: J Fritz Rumpf/2023 NPOTY

Photo 2024 International Festival of Photography, Australia’s largest photography festival, will be the third edition of the event. The biennial, which will be taking place 1-24 March 2024, will unite 100 free exhibitions and outdoor art installations across Melbourne and Victoria.

Artists from around the world will consider alternative realities and parallel futures in this edition’s theme, ‘The Future Is Shaped by Those Who Can See It’. Outdoor displays of work will be held across Melbourne at locations including Parliament of Victoria, St Paul’s Cathedral and Fed Square, while a celebration of local artists is encompassed in contributions from Jemima Wyman (palawa), Angela Tiatia, Amos Gebhardt, Zoe Croggon, Elisa Carmichael (Quandamooka), Sammaneh Pourshafighi, Jo Duck and Kenton/Davey. 

What to expect at Photo 2024

‘An exciting new addition this year for Photo 2024 is “Queer Photo”, a new festival-within-a-festival that brings together 17 important LGBTQ+ voices,’ curator Brendan McCleary tells us. ‘Taking place across galleries, parks, and a historic mansion in Melbourne’s west, the programme brings together exclusive presentations by international artists such as Sunil Gupta, Clifford Prince King, and Aotearoa collective FAFSWAG, alongside new commissions by exciting local artists including Lilah Benetti and Ngarigo man Peter Waples-Crowe. People will be able to experience Jake Elwes’ AI-generated drag queens alongside queer Wiradjuri woman Karla Dickens’ exploration of race, gender and injustice, Daniel Jack Lyon’s documentation of queer youth in the Amazon and the world premiere of Vic Bakin’s heartfelt portraits of his queer community in Kyiv, Ukraine, taken in a time of conflict that threatens their very existence.’

They join artists including Ryan McGinley (USA), Omar Victor Diop (Senegal), Carmen Winant (USA), Edward Burtynsky (Canada), Mous Lamrabat (Morocco), Candice Breitz (South Africa), Cao Fei (China), and CAMP (India), alongside established names Nan Goldin (USA), Malick Sidibé (Mali) and Rennie Ellis (Australia), in the immersive programme, which also includes talks, film screenings and workshops.

‘Throughout March, Melbourne will become a vast open-air gallery of photography,’ adds associate curator Pippa Milne. ‘Curating the programme, we looked to artists who are envisioning various futures through fascinating and memorable lenses. Highlights include a trail of enormous lightboxes that will illuminate the banks of the Birrarung (Yarra River) with striking collages of global demonstrations by Jemima Wyman, Indigenous superheroes by Tony Albert and ancestral beings by Amos Gebhardt. In the Parliament Precinct, there are a number of installations at landmark sites including “Uncanny Valley: Photography, Tech and the Hyperreal”, an exhibition outside the Old Treasury Building that features portraits of cyborgs alongside portraits by cyborgs, and an exhibition in Parliament Gardens looking at the future of water from a First Nations’ perspective. We also get to celebrate some of the biggest icons of photography at Photo 2024, with an epic 20m installation by Nan Goldin, and the first Australian exhibition of Malick Sidibé.’

Photo 2024 International Festival of Photography will return for its third edition from 1 to 24 March 2024

photo.org.au