Open Theme nominee

These tennis courts have always caught our eye with such strong colours and we had wanted to photograph them with the drone for quite some time. An opportunity arose when the weather was extremely hot – 41C – and the courts were empty. When we flew the drone the colours were even more remarkable and the pops of black shadows from the lights provided a strong contrast. What we didn’t notice at first were the swirly, ghost-like stains across the courts which provide a point of interest juxtaposed with the rigid pattern of the courts. We are not sure how they were caused but probably from water and possibly salt water as these courts are very close to the ocean in Cottesloe, Western Australia.

We are a mother/daughter drone photographic team that first took to the skies of Australia in 2020. Lucy is an architect working at world-renowned architectural firm Foster + Partners in London, and Sarah is an artist currently living in Perth on Australia’s west coast. Sarah has muscular dystrophy and is in a wheelchair. She cannot use a conventional camera, however can fly a drone and take images using a remote control in her lap. They both share a passion for art, architecture, design and photography. Their awards include Boston Drone Film Festival winner, Architectural category 2021; Capture Magazine’s Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographer winner, Single Shot category 2021 and 5th in the Landscape category 2025; MinimalistPhotography Awards Honourable Mention 2023 (3); International Photography Awards Honourable Mention, Minimalism category 2022, 2024. Publications include teNeues Minimalism in Photography 2022 and Beach Life in 2023; The Australian newspaper 2022,2023, and 2026. In February 2024 they had their first very successful exhibition called 'A Take On Minimalism' at the Moores Gallery Art Space in Fremantle, Western Australia, and are in the early stages of organising their next venture.