The 2026 Head On Photo Awards have been announced alongside the launch of Sydney's Head On Photo Festival, with top honours going to a powerful portrait of a First Nations Elder, an environmental study of plastic, and a dramatic capture of a burning Turkmenistan gas crater.
Australian photographers Sylvia Liber and Fernanda Pedroso, together with Germany-based Liz Miller Kovacs, secured the major prizes across the Portrait, Exposure, and Landscape categories.
2026 Category Winners
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Portrait Award: Queensland photographer Sylvia Liber won for The strength she stands in, a striking image of Aunty Lorraine, a proud Yuin/Gunai Kurnai Elder and senior Coomaditchie artist. The portrait, which shows the visible absence of a breast, captures her quiet confidence and celebrates her dignity, resilience, and ongoing leadership within her community.
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Landscape Award: Germany-based Liz Miller Kovacs claimed the prize for Gates of hell. The photograph showcases the Darvaza Gas Crater in Turkmenistan – a vast pit that has been burning for over 50 years – and was captured after Kovacs travelled hundreds of kilometres across the Karakum Desert.
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Exposure Award: Canberra-based Fernanda Pedroso took out the award with Plastic metamorphosis: wings of our consumption. Using flash photography and long exposure, Pedroso transformed plastic waste into the shape of a delicate wing to explore the sharp contrast between pollution and beauty.
Landscape Award Winner – Gates of Hell. Turkmenistan's Darvaza Gas Crater, a vast pit of fire burning for more than 50 years. © Liz Miller Kovacs, courtesy of Head On Photo Festival.
Additional Honours & Runners-Up The Mayor of Waverley Prize was awarded to James Farr for Faces of the Outback, a portrait series dedicated to First Nations men he met while travelling across remote Australia.
Portrait Award Runners-Up
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Australian: Joy Mei En Lai (VIC) for Ivor and Evelyn – a home portrait of Giramondo Publishing founders and literary figures Ivor Indyk and Evelyn Juers.
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International: Gideon Mendel (South Africa/UK) for Jennifer May Nickel – featuring a Los Angeles woman standing in her wedding dress among the ruins of her wildfire-destroyed home.
Exposure Award Winner – Plastic metamorphosis: Wings of our consumption © Fernanda Pedroso, courtesy of Head On Photo Festival.
Landscape Award Runners-Up
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Australian: Sonja de Sterke (QLD) for Suspended Reefs – an abstract photographic piece turning fluid materials into a conceptual underwater landscape.
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International: Azim Khan Ronnie (France) for River of livelihoods – depicting hundreds of wooden boats on the Jadukata River in Bangladesh, where workers collect stones to provide for their families.
Exposure Award Runners-Up
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Australian: Gianluca Carretta (VIC) for Resilience – a portrait of a critically endangered Bornean orangutan taken in Malaysia.
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International: Mauro De Bettio (Italy) for Caged – capturing an Afghan woman holding a cage that contains a dove.
Portrait Awards – International runner-up. Jennifer May Nickel – A Los Angeles woman wearing her wedding dress while standing in the ruins of her home following the wildfires. © Gideon Mendel, courtesy of Head On Photo Festival.
Festival and Exhibition Details
Head On Photo Festival Founder and Creative Director Moshe Rosenzveig OAM noted the ability of the winning images to command attention and highlight global photographic diversity.
"These are three very different photographs, but each has the ability to make us stop and look," Rosenzveig said. "They tell stories about people, places and the world around us, and show just how much can be communicated through a single image. The Awards are an important part of Head On. They give photographers from around the world an opportunity to have their work seen by new audiences, and we're delighted to be showcasing this year's winners and finalists as part of the Festival."
The winning images are part of a 110-work finalist showcase displayed across three free Sydney locations until 29 November:
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Portrait: Bondi Pavilion Gallery
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Landscape: Bondi Beach promenade
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Exposure: Paddington Reservoir Gardens
The Head On Photo Festival 2026 runs from 6–29 November. Free to the public, the event features 93 exhibitions across Sydney and Australia, presenting work from more than 700 photographers spanning over 30 countries. Alongside themes of identity, migration, conflict, and Australian life, the festival includes a full program of workshops, panels, and artist talks.
You can find out more on the Head On Photo Festival website.