First female overall winner of the Epson Pano Awards announced
Victorian photographer, Mieke Boynton has been announced the overall winner of the 10th annual Epson Pano Awards. Considered one of the biggest photographic competitions worldwide for panoramic photography, the 4913 entries from 1258 photographers in 72 countries, were vying for $50,000 in cash and prizes.
Boynton’s winning image, Dragonfire, Braided Rivers of Southern Iceland, makes her the first female to win the overall prize – Open Photographer of the Year. The image features in the Nature/Landscape category.
The overall runner-up, Abdulla Al-Mushaifri from Qatar, won the Open division, in the Built Environment/Architecture category for his image, National Museum Qatar.
The overall winner of the 2019 Amateur competition was named as Carlos F. Turienzo, from Spain, for his image, Waterfall, Lofoten, Norway, while Daniel Trippolt from Austria, was the runner-up.
Grossglockner High Alpine Road, Austria.
Melbourne-based photographer, Mark Gray, who was also one of the judges of the Amateur category, was a runner-up in the Open Landscape/Nature category with his image, 'Enchantment'.
A number of other Australian photographers were recognised in the Top 50, across all categories, including Tasmania's Paul Hoelen, Mark Brierley, Dylan Toh, Douglas Porter, Ian English, Rowena English, Sandra Dann, Danny Tan, Timothy Moon, Chandra Bong, Sam Markham, Farhat Memon, Chantasinee La-Ongsri, Ray Jennings, Luke Saddington, Vesna Skorjanec, Graeme Gordon, Mark Duffus, Adam Crews, and Tom Putt.
The Three Kings, Death Valley National Park, California, USA.
The judging panel featured some of the world's top panoramic photographers and industry professionals, including Abe Blair, Juan Pablo de Miguel, Adam Williams, Anna Gibiskys, Isabella Tabacchi, Aaron Spence, Bill Bailey, Sean Davey, Chris Collacott, William Long, Timothy Poulton, Mark Gray, and Ayrton Camargo.
River Flowers, Tam Coc, Ninh Binh, Viet Nam.
About the winning image
“I travelled to Iceland last year and chartered a Cessna 207 to photograph the spectacular ‘braided rivers’. As the mighty glaciers travel down the mountains, they grind up the rock underneath, and as the melted water fans out across the river deltas, these suspended rock particles cause a slight milkiness to the water. The colours alter according to the presence of different elements and minerals, such as sulphur and iron, and the endless variations are absolutely breathtaking. It wasn’t until later that I saw the fire-breathing dragon in the photo, but now that I’ve seen it, I can’t see anything else! Nature is truly an artist.
“I absolutely love the raw thrill of flying, and to see the delicate intricacy of Nature's Art from 1,000-2,000 feet above fills me with joy and delight. I travel to remote and inaccessible areas – many of which can’t be photographed by drone – and many of these places resemble giant abstract paintings. I am mesmerised and fascinated by Nature’s Abstract Art. I am inspired by the photography of Andre Ermolaev and the artistic styles of M.C. Escher, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, and the Papunya Tula artists."
Visit the website to see all the winners, runners-up, and top-placed photographers.
Magic Sunrise in Bled Lake. Bled, Slovenia.
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