See the finalists in the 2023 Australian Life photography competition

On the way to Inspections (Grand Prize Winner)

My partner Luisa (pictured) and I have moved rentals 9 times in the 13 years we've been in Sydney. This image was made while rushing between inspections on a Saturday last year. Our children, Orson and Leon, are in the background, letting loose some of their pent-up energy.

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Location: Camperdown NSW

Credit: Samuel Ferris

Footy Dreams

Taken with a Nikon F2 on CineStill 400D film. As we were leaving the Tigers game (a bad defeat), I saw this boy and who I assume to be his grandad. The grandad was boosting the boy up onto the roof - who knows why.

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Location: Leichhardt Oval, Lilyfield NSW

Credit: Theodore Miller

Balranald main street, Balranald, NSW

I love discovering unique scenes in country towns. One evening last August I noticed this fascinating tree during an overnight stop in Balranald. It captivated me - so out of place, seemingly lonely, but standing proud and inviting me to photograph it.

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Location: Balranald NSW

Credit: Chris Round

Brigit working in her art studio

Brigit Heller is an artist, mostly creating metal sculptures. In this photo she polishes off the endings of every single metal rod. Despite the quite industrial look it has a very meditative feel to it.

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Location: Lancefield VIC

Credit: Adrian Plitzco

Young mums

Catching the train to photograph the Trans Pride Australia float in the 2023 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade, I met these young women heading home after their Reborn Babies Mothers group picnic. It took a conversation to understand the scene.

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Location: St James train station, Sydney NSW

Credit: Jamie James

Ritchie Finger (Alias Cindy Pastel)

"Ritchie Finger (Cindy Pastel) stands with effortless style in the doorway to his Woolloomooloo home in Sydney. Cindy is a legendary Sydney drag queen debuting in 1978 at Patches, Oxford Street. Cindy was huge in Sydney in the 80s during HIV/AIDS. She found a purpose then, and a place where she belonged, to entertain and to give people hope that “we can get through this and be fabulous, and we did".

Originally a Melbourne boy from a horse racing and jockey family, Ritchie is now 65 years old and has been doing drag for over 45 years. Cindy has entertained kids whose uncles or aunts told them about her, and Ritchie has no intention of giving up: “Ï just adore it".

When he was young, he wanted to be the most outrageous thing he could be and found it by being a drag queen. Somewhere along the line he also ended up inspiring and "becoming quite famous for being the father and son of Priscilla Queen of the Desert".

When asked about this image being submitted to Australian Life, Ritchie responded immediately, "Darling I am what I am. I was meant to be the drag queen I am today...a brilliant human being living".

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Location: Woolloomooloo NSW

Credit: Robert Knapman

'Box Wars at Boogie'

At a small country music festival in rural Victoria, Box Wars create incredible cardboard structures and costumes themed around epic battles and clashes, some drawn from history, some completely and utterly made up. Commentary booms from the stage while the punters look on, chaos ensues as the players completely tear their own creations to shreds, in a show of ultimate catharsis.

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Location: Our Friends Farm, Tallarook VIC

Credit: Grace Lillia Faith Taranto-Jones

In a Trance

My daughter at my sister’s house. We drove from Sydney to Newcastle to visit family, and she put on her cousin’s new wig she bought online.

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Location: Jesmond NSW

Credit: Zorica Purlija

Red Hoodie, Darlo Bar

Everyday life: this is my local pub and a typical view from my usual seat. Local art students have to go outside to smoke in the gutter, friends chatting, people greeting each other.

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Location: Darlinghurst NSW

Credit: Richard Hughes

Public telephone booth near me

Public phones used to be a big thing in the past. Now they are disappearing. It's kinda special that someone uses a phone booth. I believe this photo speaks for itself. I let the viewers look deep to connect with the couple's chemistry.

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Location: Lower Millers Point NSW

Credit: Jaiver Alexis Rendon Diaz

Alexandria Scout Hall

Scout meeting at Alexandria Scout Hall. This photo was part of a project photographing pictures and paintings of Queen Elizabeth II that have adorned the walls of many clubs and halls in Australia for decades and have been part of the furniture for most of us.

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Location: Alexandria NSW

Credit: Louise Kennerley

1000 Bedrooms - Caldon Lortan #491

Caldon in his bedroom.

He's had to move a few times in the last year or so and tells me "no bedroom is permanent for me as yet, but they all are home for a sweet while”.

This image is part of an ongoing series capturing people in their bedrooms with black and white film.

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Location: South Kalgoorlie, WA

Credit: m ellen burns

These Dogs Have Dreaming

In Yuendumu, dogs are more than just pets. They're family members, friends and spiritual guardians. Dogs and dingoes have an ancient symbiotic relationship with Warlpiri people, a bond which continues to this day.

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Location: Yuendumu NT

Credit: Francis Macindoe

Approaching Totality

During mid-April 2023, scientists, eclipse chasers and astro-tourists from all over the planet flooded into the tiny West Australian coastal town of Exmouth. One of the only locations on earth to view the rare hybrid solar eclipse, delivering a unique and unrepeatable intersection of people and place. In complete awe, the lady pictured views the celestial alignment moments before the 58 seconds of totality.

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Location: Exmouth WA

Credit: Trent Mitchell

Sittin’ Pretty

I grew up along the coast in Perth, Western Australia. My father worked the cray boats between Yanchep and Cervantes. One of my favourite memories when I was a kid was feeding fish to a wild dolphin over the side of the boat. Liam, my son, is pictured is along the coast between Fremantle and Cottesloe. When I was Liam’s age, we were swimming in the open ocean jumping off the cray boat! Having shared this with Liam, I decided to take him out to the water on our mum/son date and get him used to the feel of the board and what the ocean can do as he hasn’t experienced the water in the capacity I did at his age. Liam explains in this Sunday-session it was “funnest” experience and together we had the most fun. He mentioned his highlights were us laughing lots, watching the school of fish and sting ray in the water.

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Location: Perth WA

Credit: Missa Williams

Towel fight 2

This is an image from a personal project called Urban Swimmers. Taken underneath Iron Cove Bridge. The men started an impromptu towel fight.

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Location: Rozelle NSW

Credit: Neil Bailey

Colours in the rain

Sydney Town Hall is a centre of Australian cultural and political life. The rally and gathering over there was for supporting abortion rights for women. When it rained, the crowd still demonstrated at the weekend. The colours from the umbrellas appeared so beautiful as well as the people.

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Location: Sydney NSW

Credit: Gang Jian

Gas stop, road to Lake Eyre

After an epic multi day 4WD adventure from Wagga to Lake Eyre, my friend and I pulled up at a remote gas station late at night to refuel his beloved Land Rover. Meanwhile, I ducked inside to buy a cold pack of beer, some beef jerky and an Akubra.

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Location: Near Lake Eyre, SA

Credit: Guy Wilkinson

Elva Ursula Holland

Collaborative Image by Jasmine Poole and Chris Sewell

She created beautiful dolls, crafted teddy bears, painting, music, photography, her creations were endless. She curated every space in her home, LEDs on timers to match her daily ritual.

We were commissioned by her grandson Luke to capture her home, a way for her loved ones to remember her.

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Location: Quirindi NSW

Credit: Jasmine Poole and Chris Sewell

Ranmaya picks kale at first light

54 year-old Ranmaya Gautam is picking kale at sunrise. She and her husband Ram have worked at the same vegetable farm in western Sydney for the past decade. It was their first jobs when they arrived in Australia as refugees from Bhutan, after fleeing from persecution and living in a Nepalese camp for 10 years. Through their humble earnings and a highly unusual community borrowing custom, they and 78% of the Bhutanese refugee community have managed their dream of home ownership in one of the toughest property markets in the world.

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Location: Orchard Hills NSW

Credit: Mridula Amin

Pride March

Harriet Durant skips across the Sydney Harbour Bridge with 50,000 other brightly dressed people to celebrate WorldPride. The bridge was shut for 7 hours for the event on 5 March 2023, one of the highlights of the global WorldPride festival.

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Location: Sydney NSW

Credit: Edwina Pickles

Bobbie-Jo Hall & Ebony Williams

Bobbie-Jo Hall with her daughter Ebony Williams, who has cerebral palsy and is in need of a spinal fusion to correct severe scoliosis. She has been on the waiting list at the Children's Hospital in Westmead for 706 days and still has no date for the surgery. The 12 year-old from Goulburn is among more than 200 patients at the Children’s Hospital waiting for essential orthopaedic surgeries beyond the clinically recommended maximum times, many enduring painful and debilitating conditions for more than a year.

A record 779 children had been waiting longer than clinically recommended for their surgeries across all specialties – far exceeding the 29 children waiting too long for surgery at the end of 2020 and almost double the 407 children at the end of 2021.

The maximum wait time for a spinal fusion should be 365 days. Ebony is approaching the 2year mark.

“We still don’t know how much longer she’ll have to wait,” mother Bobby Hall said of her wheelchair-bound daughter.

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Location: Goulburn NSW

Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Rodeo Fair, Mount Isa (Kalkadoon) 2022

Local teenagers enjoy the festivities of the Mount Isa Rodeo. To me this picture speaks a lot about the future. On one level it's a portrait of Indigenous Australia yet there's a sense of science fiction and surreality that sits in contrast with the outback landscape as a smart car is towed away in the background.

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Location: Mount Isa QLD

Credit: Josh Robenstone

Life Goes On

Life don’t stop in Australia whether it’s rain or shine as long as there’s a cafe open.

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Location: Pyrmont NSW

Credit: Paul Consolacion

John

John was enjoying a quick break before his morning shift as he caught my eye from across the street. We were both in a rush, but he let me take his picture as we had a quick chat about our plans and hopes for the rest of the day.

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Location: Brisbane QLD

Credit: Glenn Homann

Ants got into her lunchbox and ate the sandwich

My daughter's lunchbox was inadvertently not emptied one weekend. The ants enjoyed the honey sandwich within.

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Location: Melbourne VIC

Credit: Emma Perry

The Ringmaster

Partners Mark Layton and Rosemary Beeton are lifelong professional horse people. Mark established a horse riding business in the late 80s at Dry Plain, near Adaminaby, where he and Rosemary met a decade later. After attending 3 years at Macquarie University, Mark worked by breaking in and training horses, teaching horsemanship and taking trail rides.

Originally from Britain, Rosemary, who spent her childhood working with horses, continued her career in America, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, and then Greece where she was a riding instructor and stable manager to 60 top-flight jumping horses. Her students included the Malayasian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. After training the first Malayasian Ceremonial Equestrian Police, she received public recognition, conferred by the King, in the form of a Pingat Pangkuan Negara Medal (PPN) for meritorious service to the country.

Now retired, they practice self-sufficiency, raising goats and chickens and growing vegetables on their 100-acre property. Mark makes goat cheeses derived from the produce he collects from a daily routine of milking goats. It’s a hectic schedule for anyone and with little time to relax it’s a rare moment when either of them gets to sit down.

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Location: Dry Plain NSW

Credit: Lisa Hogben

Waiaria

Waiaria. My proud Mulandjali girl. My proud southern Italian girl. Proud connections to Maori Whanau. She is all that Australia is, and strives to be.

Diverse, strong, passionate, kind...vocal.

A piece of shell this day gifted from the ocean, became the tooth of a shark, her most respected animal.

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Location: Maroubra NSW

Credit: Bel Macedone