Eddie Jim, The Age, ‘Fighting Not Sinking’. One of the elders on the remote Kioa Island in Fiji, Lotomau Fiafia was born in 1952 on the island and has lived his whole life there. He and his ten-year-old grandson John swim in the bay almost every day. In this photo they are standing where the shoreline used to be when Lotomau was young, but the sea level now is up to his chest.
Quinn Rooney, Getty Images, ‘Beauty in Sport’. Matilda Joy: Australian players celebrate as goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold stops France’s penalty shot by Eve Perisset in the penalty shoot out during the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Quarter Final match between Australia and France at Brisbane Stadium.
Matthew Abbott, The New York Times / The Washington Post, ‘As China Expands Pacific Reach, a Tug-of-War for Island Nations Ensues’. Solomon Islanders gather to observe the Solomons Scouts and Coastwatchers memorial service at Unity Square to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal. The USS Oakland is in the background.
Robert Cianflone, Getty Images & Daily Telegraph, ‘Just another day’. 2. That’s gonna hurt: Mario Suryo Aji of Indonesia, rider of the #64 Honda Team Asia Honda, crashes out of the Moto3 World Championship race during the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.
The annual Walkley Awards for Excellence in Photojournalism act as something of a mirror to society—reflecting back the year we had through photographs. From news and current affairs to sporting highlights and photographic essays, the awards showcase the best that Australian photojournalism has to offer.
The Nikon-Walkley Press Photography Exhibition, which is currently on display at the State Library of Victoria, comprises finalists and winners from each category, including Nikon Photo of the Year winner Matilda Joy by Quinn Rooney, which captured an iconic moment at last year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The scope of the photographic subjects go beyond Australia, covering pivotal moments across the world such as the war in Ukraine, and the Nikon Portrait Prize winner, which Walkley Foundation CEO Shona Martyn describes as “a stunning environmental portrait, showing the intergenerational impact of climate change on remote Kioa Island in Fiji.”
View, in pictures, the highs and lows of 2023 captured through photojournalism.
Dean Sewell, Oculi and Guardian Australia, ‘Return to Uluru – The repatriation of Yukun’. An emotional Abraham Poulson, great grandson and nephew of Yukun, carries his ancestor’s remains to the ceremony.
Diego Fedele, Getty Images and Ms. Magazine, ‘Eastern Ukraine Portfolio’. 440: Wooden crosses mark a mass burial site where people were interred during the Russian occupation of Izium. On September 15, 2022, Ukrainian forces discovered the site containing at least 440 bodies in a section of the Izium cemetery, in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
Justin McManus, The Age, The Sunday Age, The Age online, ‘Leaving the Land of Plenty’. The Last Sheep: Effie Tsagalidis tends the last of her sheep before they are sold.
Ian Munro, The West Australian, ‘Banksia Hill Riot’. Special operations group officers storm the roof of Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre near Perth, bringing an end to 14 hours of chaos after the youths set fire to accommodation, armed themselves with weapons and climbed onto the roof. The inmate in this picture is a youth and cannot be identified. The face has been blurred and the T-shirt colour changed.
Jake Nowakowski, Herald Sun / News Corp, ‘Jake Nowakowski’. Yes: Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews takes to the stage at a Labor Party function at the Village Green Hotel to celebrate winning a third term in government in the 2022 State Election.
Jason South, The Age, ‘Water, water everywhere’. Making the Best of it: After most of the suburb is evacuated due to flooding the sun returns and a spot of tanning and paddling is the order of the day in South Shepparton.
Jason South, The Age, ‘Pictures of the Year’. “I’m not leaving”: Graham Baldwin, 71, lived with calf-high water throughout his house for days after flooding in Echuca East.
Darrian Traynor, Freelance/Getty Images, ‘A Dark Day’. Melbourne City goalkeeper Tom Glover, shocked and bleeding, is escorted from the pitch by teammates.
David Gray, AFP, ‘Moments In Sport’, Golden Kiss: Spain’s Salma Paralluelo kisses her medal as she lies on her back amongst confetti talking on her phone, after Spain defeated England 1-0 in the final of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup at Sydney’s Stadium Australia.
Nikon-Walkley Press Photography Exhibition
State Library Victoria
On now—January 31
Mundamurra Ngijinda Dulk—My Island Home at Cairns Art Gallery, is a landmark exhibition dedicated to the late Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, one of the most singular voices in Australian contemporary painting.
Farrago, the University of Melbourne’s student union newspaper-turned-magazine celebrates a hundred years of publication. At a time when print publishing in the arts is under increasing pressure, The George Paton Gallery is exhibiting ‘Farrago 100 Years’, celebrating the editorial legacy and design innovation of the periodical.
In our ongoing series, Shelf Portraits, Art Guide writers recommend the books—recently published or deserving of more attention—that shed new light on an idea that has long simmered in the art world or has helped them see a familiar medium in a different light.
Desert Mob is a critical platform for the cultural and creative authority of desert artists—with artists driving new ways of making, collaborating, and innovating on their own terms, ensuring cultural knowledge is not just maintained but continually expanded through practice.
New South Wales-based artist Sophie Cape, has won the Hadley’s Art Prize for 2025. The winning piece, alongside the 28 finalists, will be on display at Hadley’s Orient Hotel, Hobart until 21 September.
Auckland-born and raised artist Lisa Reihana is ever the optimist, creating two new works signifying social cohesion to hang outside two Australian arts venues—Ngununggula, and Sydney Contemporary at Carriageworks —just as dark divisions seek to undermine the value of migration and Indigenous sovereignty.
