Mardi Gras Award Night

Well, time for another self-shameless plug. Again, totally unexpected on this one. As you all probably remember I was in a project with the Mardi Gras officials, to shoot the event, and projected on the shop front in Oxford Street. It was a project organised by Robert McGrath to collaborate with the Mardi Gras officials, to promote the event, and in the mean time bringing out the emerging photographers like us into the art industry here in Australia. Last Saturday night, Mardi Gras officials held an award night for the volunteers, and since they were very happy with the outcome, so decided to come up with few more awards and prizes for our little project.

There are 4 categories: Best use of medium, Best Marketable, Most Publishable, and Most Collectable and the winners are:

Best use of medium - won by Pong and Nudzejma Avdic, judged by Robert McFarlane, a photo critic who works for Sydney Morning Herald.

Best Marketable - won by Vitek - Judge by Damien and Ann, the Marketing Manager and President of Mardi Gras.

Most Publishable - won by Orion Mitchell - judged by Rex Turnbull, creative director of Lino Magazine

Most Collectable - Won by ME (pic above) - judged by Dr Dick Quan, a highly regarded influential Photoart Collector in Australia.

To be honest, I never really think much of the photos I've taken over the Mardi Gras period. I know there are few good shots among in the sea of over hundred of pics, people posing for you, overexposed, blurred, tiredsome party goers. Hence, I wasn't really looking forward to win anything but just decided to tag along and see what's going on. However, to have my photo being picked by someone highly regarded like Dr Quan, and also showing interests in buying my work in limited edition prints are really something special to me. I am stoked and flattered. Somehow this is another achievement for me to push myself a step ahead with my passion in photography.

All the winners received a nano ipod, with arm band, and also a VIP blue card that can be used at any Mac shop to get a free copy of lightroom and also attend any classes they have. Having said that, i am yet to receive mine, since there are more than 2 winners in some categories. I will chase after that... :) But I think the best prize is having my work receiving good responses and criticism by highly regarded art critics. Not to mention Dr Quan wants to buy my limited edition print to add to his collection that worths over million dollars. We spent the rest of the night at Lure restaurant across the road from Arq, we chatted, shared thoughts, laughters, before we called it a night went home happy.

Posted by Shisso at April 23, 2007 11:09 AM | TrackBack