Australian Runner Up @ Head On Exposure Awards

I was honoured to be a Finalist in the awards then unexpectedly Australian Runner Up. The image is on display as part of the festival at Paddington Reservoir Gardens in Sydney until 28 November. I suspect it will also be exhibited in Head On’s first showing in Perth during February 2026.

The image is part of the Climate Solvers series, and will be exhibited at the UTS exhibition printed at 1.5 x 2.25 metres and framed.

The caption reads:

The Leaving: Three years on from the floods – eighty homes, eighty departures. Each house pictured belonged to a family in Lismore who accepted a government buyout to leave the floodplain permanently. Empty and silent, the buildings remain as placeholders of lives already in motion — photographs of an absence. The image explores the scale and quiet emotion of managed retreat in the face of climate impacts. Together, these homes become a single portrait of a town in transition, where the past still stands while the future is rebuilt elsewhere.