Judges

Steve Parish

Steve is a passionate and highly motivational speaker, writer, teacher and digital artist, and one of few Australian photographers who can look back over five-plus decades of photography across a range of Australian social and natural history subjects.

Steve pioneered underwater nature photography in association with the Australian Museum which led to his first publishing ventures in the late ’60s and now manages the largest and most comprehensive privately owned photographic library in the nation; it is from this vast resource that he has created all his projects. While many of his featured images are now iconic, others are being seen here in this website and associated Fine Art Gallery and Stock Libraries for the first time.

Kris Anderson

Kris is a commercial and fine-art photographer, speaker and photographic judge. Based in Brisbane, Kris draws on his experience as a performer and musician to focus on photography for the performing arts: commercial work on branding for performing arts companies, actor headshots, dance photography, and live theatre production photography.

For his personal illustrative photographic work, Kris often explores themes concerned with modern life, mental health, and the impact of technology on people and relationships. A Master of Photography with the AIPP, NZIPP, Icon and Cosmos, and a Fellow of the SWPP, Kris was recently awarded 2023 Australian Professional Portrait Photographer of the Year by the NZIPP, and won a coveted Grand Award at the recent Icon Awards for his in-camera work. He has judged print awards for professional photography organisations in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA, as well as a wide variety of online image competitions including the Sony Alpha Awards, Rise International Photography Awards and the Asia Pacific Photography Awards. Kris is also a proud EIZO Ambassador.

Katie Kolenberg

Katie Kolenberg is a portrait photographer, coach and entrepreneur. She is the founder/director of two businesses; Heartstory Photography, a family photography studio based in Canberra, and Katie K, her personal brand specialising in holistic business and creative coaching.
Born to two artist parents, and growing up in art galleries and studios, surrounded by books, paintings and eccentrics paved the way for a life of creativity and self-expression. Katie studied both theatre and graphic design, and started various careers before moving into family portrait photography after the birth of her first child in 2007. Her personal work is mostly based around self portraiture and documenting everyday life.

Katie is passionate about creativity and self exploration as a pathway to wellness, regulation, joy, growth, healing, self-love, and connection. She has studied polyvagal theory, internal family systems and somatics as part of her coaching work.

Katie has been awarded AIPP ACT Family photography of the Year three times, as well as AIPP Australian Family Photographer of the Year in 2015 and 2017. She has judged print awards in Australia as well as online photographic competitions for over 10 years.

Steve Wise

Steve Wise (B.Env.Des RBI MPhotogIII) is a fine art portrait/commercial photographer (27Creative) and accredited medical photographer, videographer and graphic artist with AIMBI, in line with his work as Coordinator of the Medical Multimedia Design Dept at Royal Perth Hospital. He feeds his personal love of art and visual narrative through his fine art portraiture and thrives on the collaborative approach inherent in his work. Steve is co-founder of a growing body of Health Humanities research titled ‘Depth of Field’ © – using art (fine art photography, film, medical imagery, music, literature and patient lived experience narratives) to develop consumer driven, reflective learning resources for widespread use in health professions education.

Steve has won many awards for his fine art portraiture, most recently the 2022 Premier Award Winner Still Image Personal Work BCA BioImages (USA), 2021 Winner Siena International Creative Photo Awards for Portraiture (Italy) and the 2018 AIPP Australian Portrait Photographer of the Year.

Laura W aters

Laura Waters founded Princess Pictures in 2003 driven by a vision to support creative ideas, pushing audiences to see the world in new ways.

Born in the US, she studied at Boston University and produced current affairs and documentary television in London and LA. She’s produced all five of Chris Lilley’s ABC/HBO/BBC comedy series, We Can Be Heroes, Summer Heights High, Angry Boys, Ja’mie: Private School Girl and Jonah From Tonga, as well as Chris’s most recent series, Lunatics for Netflix.

Laura has won two TV Logie awards, one AFI award, the NYC Webfest and been nominated for dozens of international television awards for various Princess Pictures productions.

Luke Eve

Luke Eve, the founder of More Sauce, is an internationally acclaimed, award winning director who has worked across commercials, music videos, short films, series and feature films. When not producing and directing work internationally for More Sauce he is working with production companies and broadcasters around the world. Luke is a graduate of the AFTRS. Soon after, he established, More Sauce, and went on to direct short films and television in Australia.

During the pandemic Luke created, produced, directed and acted in one of the world’s first lockdown series, CANCELLED. Produced in Australia, Spain and Argentina, the series, has won 15 major awards including the Grand Jury Prize at both the Marseille and British Web Festivals as well as being nominated for a Rose D’Or.

Luke’s feature film debut, a Netflix original, I Met A Girl, starring Brenton Thwaites and Lily Sullivan premiered at the Busan International Film Festival. He recently wrapped production on his second feature, an extension of his lockdown series, UnCANCELLED which filmed during the dramatic Fallas Festival in Valencia, Spain.

Socratis Otto

Recognized as one of Australia’s most diverse actors, NIDA graduate Socratis Otto’s roles range from Charles Darwin in the ABC mini-series Darwin’s Brave New World, kali-fighting demon in the feature film I, Frankenstein, George Dyer in Jim Sharman’s Helpmann award-winning Three Furies, and his ground-breaking turn as transwoman Maxine Conway in the global TV hit Wentworth. He is currently the ringmaster of Luna Park’s virtual experience The Dream Circus and is about to feature in AMC’s Nautilus and the feature film UnCancelled.

Socratis is also a writer and director, having directed both theatrical production and virtual adaptation of The Hope Song examining real life stories about mental health and the digital series and repurposed feature film Homespun, currently available on PRIME and STAN.

Socratis is currently writing an auto-fictional account of the chronic bullying encountered by a sensitive 12 year old boy, the son of Greek migrants, in the late 1980’s.

Nadeah

Renowned for her genre-hopping irreverence and mesmerising stage presence, the Melbourne born, Paris bred songstress, Nadéah Miranda, has supported artists as diverse as Tame Impala, Nick Cave, Mick Jones (The Clash), Fun Lovin’ Criminals, James, The Do, Damian Rice, Yodelice and Charlie Winston and shared the bill with artists such as Franz Ferdinand, Keane, Kelis, Funkadelic, Snow Patrol and Lily Allen.

She’s played the Royal Albert Hall (twice), Henry Fonda Theatre (LA) (twice) Glastonbury (three times) and fronted bands such as Nouvelle Vague, the loveGods and B for Bang. Working with various acclaimed producers including Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey, Bat for Lashes), Marc Collin (Nouvelle Vague), Tommy D (Catatonia, Right Said Fred) and Grammy nominated classical composer, Nicola Tescari, she’s written and released five albums, featured on countless others and is set to release a self penned duets album in 2023

John Willsteed

John Willsteed is a musician and academic. He toured the world through the late 80s in The Go-Betweens, has recorded and performed with many bands and has been a member of award-winning Brisbane group Halfway since 2011. A composer and sound editor with over 90 film and television credits and three AFI/AACTA awards, he holds an adjunct position at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. He has presented papers nationally and internationally, and his academic interest is in cultural heritage, curatorial practice and storytelling. He has produced work examining Brisbane’s punk and post-punk scene, has written numerous pieces for The Conversation and contributed to academic journals and books as both writer and editor. He won the inaugural Letty Katts Award at the State Library of Queensland in 2016 and was awarded the 2024 John Oxley Library Fellowship for his project, Dive For Your Memory – Queensland music stories.

Brisa Roché

American artist Brisa Roché signed to Blue Note in 2005. Her inimitable voice and rich production angles have given each of her 10 personal albums cult status.
In 2017 she founded independent label Black Ash and in 2019 she produced the soundtrack for ceremonies at the American Film Festival in Deauville. Writer, composer and producer, her catalogue of records and collaborations continues to grow.
In May 2024, Platinum Books will release her novel “PARIS, MOON”. She is currently busy with RAD, an experimental duo with Nicolas Laureau from Prohibition.