This image ‘Bravado’ has won for me the Australian Photographic Prize 2026 Narrative Photographer of the Year. I also won the title of Runner Up Australian Photographer of the Year.
Debate
The image created a lot of really interesting debate around the use of the blur and other things in the live judging (go to 1:55). Judges who loved it said it ‘broke all the rules’ was ‘iconic’, ‘benchmark’, ‘near flawless’ and had ‘astronomical energy’.
The image is actually part of a series of ten images shot in Perth at Coogee Jetty called Brotherhood.
It tops off a pretty good year for my photography work; I also have an image in a major New South Wales exhibition opening in September and will be featured in The Australian magazine late August. This year my images have also been selected for exhibitions in Dublin, Athens and Jaipur.
About this Brotherhood Series.
There’s an element of nostalgia in my attraction to this place – Coogee Jetty. My childhood was like this; water, risk taking and freedom.
But it’s more than that. Since 2020 when I first started going to the jetty, I’ve built a story of young men finding connection in an increasingly socially disconnected world.
Social media has replaced social interaction. Isolation is the new normal. Negative role models in the ‘manosphere’ are luring disenfranchised young men.
Their opportunities for risk taking and physical freedom are slowly, incrementally diminishing. Teen depression is surging. In Australia, young men remain substantially more likely than young women to die by suicide.
Coogee Jetty is like an antidote for that. A place to socialise with salty, slippery boy wrestles, to compete to make the biggest splash and to show off with mid-air tumble after tumble into a cool, calm ocean.
It’s play time that’s building resilience and facilitating friendship and belonging with pounding natural dopamine hits, way beyond those from social media. Young men are yearning for places and experiences like this.
