Conceptual 1st place winner

As the world's most locked down city struggled through over 240 days of heavy restrictions, with limited time outside and scarce options to learn and play for the kids - everyone needed to find their own way to keep going. Small things. Small wins. Like making a space helmet for your child fascinated by the night sky. And a suit. Too bad that the novelty of a costume doesn’t last. Stories however, seem to have worked since forever. So we took the costume and went looking for stories. The good thing is that with a little imagination stories can be found anywhere, be it 5km travel limit or your bedroom. The phone booth or a laundry. These analogue photographs are the memories from the stories we found. The lockdown has now ended. We’ll outgrow the costume. But the time spent together exploring and imagining is one special gift to keep.

Ukraine born and raised, now calling Australia home for over 17 years, being currently based in Melbourne.

Photography has always been a passion but never became a career. Occasional freelance assignments early on served as a great source of learnings, especially when it comes to thinking fast on your feet and adapting to different environments, but also proving that the world of client service is rarely compatible with one's own creative expression, which was the main reason of starting photography in the first place.
This eventually led to doing just personal work, primarily on film, where the joy of craftsmanship can be experienced the most.

Awarded 2021 Australian Photographer of the Year by the Australian Photography magazine.