Judges
Courtesy of
Christina Simons
Climate Change Series
Christina Simons
Highly Commended
Christina Simons is an award-winning international documentary photographer focused on humanitarian issues and cultural diversity. Her work has been exhibited throughout Australia, the United States, England, Europe, Russia, and Mexico.
Icelandic & American, Simons resides in Australia as a true citizen of the world, speaking multiple languages. She is a member of the Women Photograph collective and regularly mentors and teaches photography in Melbourne, Australia. Having worked in the visual arts industry for over twenty-five years, her work traverses many interests, including travel, lifestyle, and portraiture, and is represented in publications such as The New York Times and The Guardian UK, as well as working with several NGOs such as Medicines Sans Frontiers and UNICEF.
Her passion for human rights and civil liberties has led to series such as “The Haiti Project” on children in domestic servitude, Women’s health in the Philippines and Aboriginal Education in Australia; not to mention her solo-exhibitions, book and multi-award winning series “Running to Nowhere” on Central American Refugees.
Her curiosity of subcultures has produced projects such as award-winning series "Derby Girls" and the multi-award winning series "Lil Bullfighters" of Mexico.
With a passion for justice and compulsion to observe, Christina Simons provides key visual commentary into the unknown issues, places, and aspects of this world.
Australian Apocalypse: The Consequences of the Australian Bushfires
Kangaroo Island, Australia ; Sarsfield, Australia; Clifton Creek, Australia, Waterholes, Australia; Raymond Island, Australia
2020
The late 2019 to early 2020 bushfires have ravaged over 10 million hectares of Australia, killing nearly 30 people and an estimated half a billion animals. The country is left in a ravaged state, which suggests our climate crisis is at a tipping point. Here is the devastation these bushfires around Australia left behind.
In early January 2020, I was on assignment with the New York Times to cover the fires both in Bairnsdale, Victoria, and Kangaroo Island, South Australia. I was sent back to Bairnsdale with UNICEF and to Kangaroo Island a month later with The Big Issue Magazine. Based on the extensive coverage of both locations so close to the time of the fires I have a very conclusive series of images of the outcome of those fires.