RESULTS OF THE 13TH JULIA MARGARET CAMERON AWARD
FOR WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS

Scroll down to see the images of the overall winners of the Pro and Non-Pro section.
Click in the respective section to see all images selected in the respective categories:
Professional Abstract to Fine Art Categories
Professional Landscape to Women seen by Women Categories
Non-Professional Abstract to Fine Art Categories
Non-Professional Landscape to Women seen by Women Categories

This 13th edition of the Julia Margaret Cameron Award has been juried by Elisabeth Biondi (NY, USA). A total of 795 photographers from 71 countries have submitted 5,610 photographs for consideration of the juror.

PATTY MAHER, Canadian and living in Ontario, Canada (https://www.pattymaher.com), and GUIA BESANA, Italian and living in Barcelona, Spain (http://guiabesana.com) were selected as overall winners of the Award in the Professional Section. Given the quality of the work submitted by Patty Maher and Guia Besana, the organization of the Award and the juror decided to grant the Julia Margaret Cameron Award to both photographers. According to the rules of this edition of the Award, Patty and Guia will have a solo exhibition in Barcelona next October 2019 at the Gallery Valid Foto and will receive $1,500 each for lodging and travel expenses.

JULIA SH, Swedish and living in Los Angeles, USA (http://www.juliash.com) was selected as the overall winner of the Non-Professional Section. As well as the winner of the Non-Profession al section, Julia will also have a solo exhibition in Barcelona on October 2019 at the Gallery Valid Foto, plus $1,500 for lodging and travel expenses.

All category winners and honorable mentions, in both single and series, pro and non pro, will be invited to participate in the 13th Julia Margaret Cameron Collective Exhibition to be held in Barcelona next October 2019, next to the solo exhibitions of Patti Maher, Guia Besana and Julia SH.

Scroll down to see the works of Patty, Guia and Julia.

To see the category winners as well as the respective Honorable Mentions of the Professional Section, please click here. Winning images and Honorable Mentions of the Non-Professional categories can be seen here.

PattY Maher, Winner Julia Margaret Cameron Award
Professional Section.

SERIES ‘ELEMENTAL’

This is a surreal collage series which draws meaning from our associations and relationship to natural light sources and their ability to create tone and mood. Paired down to a minimalist set of stylized elements each photo conveys meaning through a metaphor of light: a bright moon indicates hope, a silver moon sets a tone of longing or romance, a high sun gives rise to nostalgia with long summer shadows, a sunset conveys a sense of wistful sadness, In the last photo this metaphor breaks down when we are faced with light that is atypical and not something for which we have clear associations. All photos in this series are self portraits which have been superimposed into a stylized world created with textures and layers of colour.

 

Guia Besana, Winner Julia Margaret Cameron Award
Professional Section

SERIES ‘CARRY ON’

At first glance Carry On is a staged work on fear of flying. In depth with this series of images, I metaphorically confront concepts such as life, control and time through the idea of fear of flying :  It is about that unease of not being in control of events in a world where everyone is constantly trying to be in control. We carry-on our emotions with our hand luggage and into the airplane. We sit amidst strangers in a pause from reality, suspended in the atmosphere where attachment to life takes different contours and perspective twists to a deeper place.

SERIES ‘UNDER PRESSURE’

Through a suite of 10 large-scale photographs Under Pressure illustrates women playing endless parts in our unstable society which persistently solicits us with contradictory messages. Women are directed to represent or translate, into a mise-en-scène, a specific conflicting theme: burn-out, marriage, ideal love, search for happiness, relationship with its own body, technology …

julia sh, winner julia margaret cameron award
non-professional section

SERIES ‘STUDIO PRACTICE’

In the U.S., what little nudity is permitted is usually shown in a sexual context. This contributes to a perception that we’re supposed to evaluate every naked body we see as a potential sex partner or rival. Seeing nudes in a museum is one of the only exceptions to this. I don’t think that most of us react to a naked portrait in a museum by thinking “wow, I’d never have sex with that, why is it on display?” or by writing a letter of complaint to the museum director about Rubens’s glorification of obesity.
Therefore, I have framed my models as sculptures and works of art in a museum, in the hope that the viewer will suspend any judgments about whether they find the models sexually attractive or not, or whether their bodies are socially "acceptable". Hopefully this will give the viewer an opportunity to observe the work as they might a classic painting, and discover some aesthetic interest, or even pleasure, in the unique shapes and textures of the models’ bodies.