Back-seat snap of sibling bags photo prize

Photographer Georgia Brogan has been named winner of the City of Sydney's 2021 Australian Life photography prize.

Currently a media arts student at UTS, Brogan, 19, was unanimously awarded the $10,000 prize for Youth, an evocative back-seat portrait of her 11-year-old sister taken in the Blue Mountains during COVID lockdown in 2020.

Sydney-based Brogan, the youngest entrant in the competition, captured the image of her sister from the front seat of the family car after their father had driven them to the main street of Blackheath so she could shoot some images.

"I often bribe my sister to come along for a photography ride in return for trampolining time with me," Brogan told AAP shortly after Thursday's online announcement by Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore.

The image was not pre-planned.

"We were in the car and the lights were hitting at good angles and it was a foggy night, which certainly helped with the moodiness," she said.

At the time the photo was taken, Brogan was enrolled in a law degree.

"I'm now doing a film degree, so winning the award is confirmation that this is the right path for me," she said. "It's a huge confidence boost."

Playfully responding to a question about how she might celebrate, Brogan said she might nip to the local pub for a takeaway margarita.

The $5000 People's Choice award went to Elise Derwin for her photograph It Always Rains Before Kick Off, taken shortly prior to the Tiwi Islands' 2021 grand final Aussie rules clash.

More than 3000 votes were cast by members of the public, with 332 of them voting for Derwin's image, in which a young boy lifts his face to the rain as players prepare to start the game behind him.

Guest judges this year were National Geographic photographer Michaela Skovranova, Magnum Photo Agency member Trent Parke and actor, singer and author Justine Clarke.

Together they selected 28 finalist images - and the overall winner - from almost 2000 entries, some 500 more than in 2019, when the prize was last held.

Parke praised Brogan's "nostalgic and romantic" work. "Every time I see it, I want to put it on the cover of a book. I absolutely love it," he said.

Skovranova added that the photo speaks to the present moment.

"We don't know where we're going or what's happening. It questions freedom of movement and uncertainty. It's a beautiful image," she said.

Now in its 18th year, the national competition usually sees finalists' photos displayed along the St James walkway in Sydney's Hyde Park.

After being cancelled in 2020, the latest exhibition can be viewed in an online gallery curated by acclaimed photographer Sandy Edwards.

Images of community gatherings, family time, caring for country and quiet moments of repose offer a window into the national psyche as it has endured drought, bushfires, floods and a global pandemic over the past several years.

Taken in 2018 during hard drought, Ryan Stuart's Emu on Mica Street documents a lone bird sauntering suburban Broken Hill in search of water.

Sari Sutton's Burn shows bushfire-blackened gums, denuded of leaves, shivering in ankle-deep snow in Ngarigo country, Kosciuszko National Park, NSW.

Meanwhile, in Jeremy Piper's Resilience in Floodwater, three kids lark about on a trampoline in their flooded backyard in Bohnock on NSW's mid-north coast after the Manning River burst its banks in March.

And in Shelley Reis's A Day in the Life of a Summer Holiday II, one family's attempt to unwind at a cabin on NSW's central coast is captured in an astutely composed, triptych-like image.

While the photographer's partner sips a brew in the nondescript kitchen at right, looking a little shell shocked, at left the couple's six-year-old daughter jumps up and down on a dark vinyl couch.

In the centre of the image, a doorway through to the much brighter dining room, decorated with orange floral wallpaper and tomato-red carpet, frames the girl's nine-year-old brother reading at a formica table.

"The variety of images we've received really demonstrate the wonderful diversity of Australia's landscapes and communities - and of the fabulous creativity of so many Australians," Moore said.

"Each of the 28 finalists has captured a beautiful image, each portraying a unique story from many different walks of life. And each one, going beyond the famous and iconic to reveal more about what makes Australia the nation it is today."

To view the exhibition, go to news.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/photos/australian-life-photography-exhibition-2021-finalists