This competition was held in conjunction with the exhibtion Sydney now: new Australian photojournalism

Winners were chosen by a panel of judges comprising: 

• Dean Sewell, Photographer, Sydney Morning Herald
• Inara Walden, Curator, Sydney now
• Craig Gillespie, Nikon Australia

Members of the public were asked to show us the image that best captured life in Sydney for them. Perhaps a favourite place, their own backyard, friends and family or a lifestyle shot that portrays something about way of live in Sydney today. My Sydney now invited people to add their chosen photographs to an online exhibition through the community and photo-sharing website Flickr.

In the final months of the exhibition 20 finalists were exhibited on a screen at the Museum of Sydney and the first three winning images chosen by the judges were created into prints to hang at the Museum of Sydney within the exhibtion.

Winners and 20 finalists

Click on the images below for larger versions:

Judge's comments:

The HHT's My Sydney now competition received over 500 entries. The competition's judges said that the entries were 'incredibly strong' visually and it was hard to pick the finalists.
 
The 21 finalists were selected by the judges as a result of their 'technical and visual excellence combined with a story appropriate to the competition's theme: My Sydney now.'  With such a high standard among the 21 finalists the judges felt that any number could have been winners.
 
Third prize went to Ferry by Blake Thompson. The judges particularly commended the photograph's composition, which achieves an artistic treatment of an iconic place - Sydney's harbour, while successfully avoiding the clichés of this subject matter. The judges particularly liked the photograph's contrast between the idea of Sydney as a 'global' world player with the reality of the city's small size. The photograph's focus on Sydney's harbour, commonly portrayed as a 'big' and glamorous playground for the rich is instead presented in a 'toy town' aesthetic.
 
Second prize was given to communion! by Johnny Barker. This was chosen by the judges for its engaging humour, with the common Sydney seagull presented as both friend and pest. The judges liked the synchronicity of the photograph's composition, which captures a moment's communion of gestures.
 
First prize was awarded to Canal by Alex Bloom, which the judges described as 'technically and aesthetically stunning.' The judges felt that the photograph's subject, a dank and dark tunnel in Sydney's suburban west, combined the topical issue of the dangers of exploring drains and canals, with timeless concepts of human instinct for urban exploration. The judges also liked the photograph's 'underground aesthetic' that reveals the grit and grime of the city normally wiped away from the surface by the constant drive to make our urban environments clean, tidy and most importantly 'safe.'
  

The winners on their entries:

First prize | Alex Bloom | Canal | 2007
"Photo of some mates in the canal after a paint, about to go for a skate. Under the road in the canal, the light coming is almost literally white because everything else under there is basically pitch black. Two in the picture are brothers, and two are cousins but we’re all just having fun in and around the streets whether in the city or in the suburbs."

Second prize | Johnny Barker | Communion! | 2007
"Sydney’s Central Station has always provided a constant influx of commuters, interstate visitors and itinerant residents. Here a grandfather, having recently arrived on a country train, playfully shoos away a seagull for his young granddaughter. The seagull responds in kind."

Third prize | Blake Thompson | Ferry | 2007
"I am drawn to the idea of manipulating landscapes to make minutiae the focus. Sydney, to me, is more about its inhabitants than its monolithic, foreshore status symbols. In this instance, the ‘Toaster’ and much of the foreshore have been transformed into to a blurry blight on the landscape, while the daily commute becomes a miniature world within a city, with infinitely more vibrancy than the rest of the environment around it."

Prizes:

1st prize

• D80 Digital SLR with 18-135mm + 70-300mm lenses (rrp $2299)
• COOLPIX S51 Blue 8.1MP compact digital camera (rrp $399)
• The winning image was also made as a print to hang at the Museum of Sydney

2nd prize

• D40x Digital SLR with 18-55mm + 55-200mm lenses (rrp $1399)
• The winning image was also made as a print to hang at the Museum of Sydney

3rd prize

• D40 + 18-55mm lens (rrp $899)
• The winning image was also made as a print to hang at the Museum of Sydney

Finalists

• The remaining 17 finalists all received a copy of the Sydney now publication