BLUE BERG WINS EXTREME ENVIRONMENT PHOTOGRAPH OF THE YEAR 2011 PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD

I am extremely pleased to announce that one of my two finalist photographs on display at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart has won the Extreme Environment Photograph of the Year 2011 People’s Choice Award.

I was having a late Sunday morning breakfast this morning with my two kids at a cafe in Healesville when I received email notification that ‘Blue Berg’ had won the award. The announcement was also made this morning on ABC Radio in Hobart (You can download an excerpt of the Competition Winner Announcement courtesy of the ABC Radio – winners are announced at the end) and a Government media press announcement was made at the conclusion of the awards – an excerpt of which is included below: You can read the full release HERE including the announcement of the other two winners of the Trafalgar prize and Wayne Papps Memorial prize. I was fortunate enough to attend the opening of the exhibition a couple of weeks ago and was amazed by the incredibly high standard of all of the photographs as well as the diversification of photographers. I am extremely honoured and humbled to have had two of my photographs selected as finalists and to have been awarded the People’s Choice Award.

Excerpt from Media Release: Winners of the 2011 Extreme Environment Photographic competition were announced this morning by Sir Guy Green, Tasmania’s Honorary Antarctic Ambassador. The competition attracted entries from across the globe, and finalists have been on display at the Bond Store at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery since the 6th of May.

The popular People’s Choice Award of camera equipment from FujiFilm was awarded to J Holko for ‘Blue Berg’.

These awards are prestigious and much sought after evidenced by the large number of quality entries received each year said Sir Guy Green, chairman of judges in the competition. Judges also included Richard Bennett of Richard Bennett Photography, Martin Walch, Associate lecturer in Fine Arts at UTAS and Rosemary Miller, Director, Salamanca Arts Centre.