PSNZ Canon Online - Results Round 5, 2021 Paul Willyams APSNZ AFIAP MNZIPP, Canon PSNZ Online Coordinator
The winner of this round of Canon Online is Allysa Carberry LPSNZ from Auckland with an intense, courageous and moving self-portrait. Comments from the judge The judge for this round was David Smith FPSNZ, who says, “It wasn’t until I received the 134 images submitted for this round of Canon Online that I realised this meant excluding 124 of them. I recalled Aliah Jan’s comment from the last round, that nailing it down to 10 is excruciatingly painful because there are often too many images deserving a spot right up there. How true.” I ask myself two main questions when assessing an image; how much impact has the story/concept for me, and does the execution augment or diminish the story? Inevitably, much of the process is subjective and I often find myself lingering over images as I "see" more in them. I have tried to balance the coverage to include "selected" (e.g. street), "arranged" (e.g. studio) and "imagined" (e.g. composited) images. I hope you enjoy my choices and commentaries. Like many people, I have taken snapshots throughout my life, but it was only in 2013 that I decided to take photography more seriously. Since then I have made a whole new group of helpful and supportive friends, gained FPSNZ honours, become a PSNZ accredited judge, assessed images for
64
many clubs, served on selection panels, put together several themed books of my photographs, held or participated in three exhibitions and been awarded trophies at national level. I sometimes wonder how it all happened… Comments from the winner “This image was my way of being in control of something at a time when I had no control over what was happening to me and my body. It was a way of saying goodbye to what was to happen and I also wanted something that could show the devastation to one’s body through breast cancer. It is a record for others to see. This is not me; I don’t recognise myself in this image, although… it is me!!! “I set up my camera on a tripod and used a trigger. A strobe on a low setting was high up and to the right of me, and I had black "poly" boards set up. As I wasn’t taking photos at the time, I was able to leave my set-up "as is" for the duration of my double mastectomy, so the images were all taken with exactly the same set-up. “This is not a glamour image. I am not a model. In fact, I look absolutely awful in these images, but this is real. Cancer is real.” You will find larger versions of the images on this link: photography.org.nz/canon-online-current-results
