“ANZANG Nature is an organisation focused on the unique natural heritage of the bioregion of Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea – continents and islands cast from the great southern continent of Gondwana Land over fifty million years ago in which, due to long periods of isolation, remarkable flora and fauna have evolved.
ANZANG Nature highlights this extraordinary legacy by encouraging photography of the region’s nature and wilderness, raising public awareness of its natural heritage, and providing support for nature conservation in the region.
To achieve these aims ANZANG Nature conducts the annual photographic competition to bring to light the very best photographs of animals, plants and landscapes taken in the region. The competition is open to all photographers, amateur or professional, of any age or nationality.
All winning and highly commended entries form a major travelling exhibition displayed at public museums and galleries, national and international.”
For the second year in a row I was able to attend the opening of the ANZANG Nature Photography exhibition. This competition, now in its seventh year was founded by Perth surgeon Stuart Miller in 2003. The South Australian Museum in Adelaide took ownership of the competition in 2009. I believe that it is the most prestigious nature photography competition in the region. The exhibition and book showcases the best in Australasian nature photography each year.
In previous years, the exhibition would represent about half of the total collection seen in the book. This year, it seemed that almost all of the images published in the book were also part of the exhibition. I’m not sure about the numbers but I suspect that they have been more selective this time and reduced the size of the whole collection. The result is an improvement in the quality and consistency of the book, which I highly recommend. In 2010, there were nine hundred plus entries. The three judges, David Hollands, Jenni Horsnell and Tim Newberry had the difficult job of making the selections. 91 photos were eventually displayed at the exhibit.
About the Exhibition
The opening started with drinks and an introduction by Prof Suzanne Miller about the history of ANZANG. This was followed by an announcement and slideshow of the prize winners. I was pleased to pick up second-place in the Wilderness Landscape category with my “Gothic Pinnacles” image. After the prize winners collected their complimentary books and cheques, we moved to the gallery space. The exhibition was very well presented. Lighting was good and I was most impressed by the quality of the prints which were produced by Atkins Technicolour. Colours were beautifully rendered, saturated but realistic and they had obviously spent some time making sure the high gloss prints looked good. They had done a great job reproducing my image, which is quite dark overall and not the easiest to print well. My only wish is that they were larger than the 18 inch or so prints that were displayed; I guess that they were limited to this size so that they could present the collection without everything looking too cramped.
People of all ages and hailing from around the world were represented. In fact, Parisian photographer Eric LeFranc’s “Colourful Symbiosis”, the winner in the Underwater Subject category was chosen as the face of ANZANG this year, making the cover of the book, entrance to the exhibition and the advertisements. It’s on the sign that you see on the photo above.