The Experienced Judging Panel - Consistency With Good Reason
Once again, three AIPP Grand Masters of Photography
To create consistency from year to year, we have kept our very special judging panel. Peter Eastway, Tony Hewitt and David Oliver have all won many photography awards and judged dozens of photography competitions internationally, each with twenty to thirty years' experience. All are AIPP Grand Masters of Photography and they bring to the judging a wide range of experiences, understanding both the traditional aspects of photography and the new avant garde styles.
Peter Eastway
G.M. Photog., MNZIPP, Hon. FAIPP, Hon FNZIPP, FAIPP
Peter Eastway’s passions are for landscapes, portraiture and the printed page. He is the publisher of Better Photography magazine and a well-known professional photographer.
Peter’s work has appeared around the world, in Apple computer television commercials, on Australian postage stamps, the cover of the Lonely Planet Guide to Australia, and the Qantas inflight magazine. More recently he has appeared on the National Geographic television channel in the Tales By Light photographer series partnered with Canon.
Peter has won many awards for his photography. In 1996 and 1998 he was the AIPP Australian Professional Photographer of the Year. He was Australian Landscape Photographer of the Year in 1995, 1996 and 1998, Australian Illustrative Photographer of the Year in 2004, and NSW Professional Photographer of the Year in 1995, 1996 and 2004. He has also won the Grand Award for the Commercial Category at the 2005 and 2008 WPPI Exhibition in Las Vegas.
He is a past chairman of the AIPP Australian Professional Photography Awards.
Peter is well-known as a photography judge both in Australia and overseas and has shared his experience with amateur and professional photography organisations around the world.
Tony Hewitt
G.M. Photog., FNZIPP
Tony is a Grand Master of Photography with both the AIPP and ICON in the USA, and a Fellow of the AIPP, the NZIPP, and the Societies of Photographers in the UK. His career highlights feature over 400 state, national and international photography awards including the AIPP Australian Professional Photographer of the Year & the International Landscape Photographer of the Year in 2023.
Tony was also invited to be a Core Artist at the 2013 Ballarat International Foto Biennali, and in 2018, Tony with the help of Denis Glennon produced Girt By Sea, a large format exhibition of stunning aerial photographs. The images which were the result of a one-month circumnavigation of Australia by light plane, have been exhibited around Australia and also featured in a lavish coffee-table book.
Tony works closely with Nikon and Phase One medium format cameras (he produced the launch photographs for the Phase One 100MP Trichromatic back) and is an ambassador for several leading photography brands including Gitzo tripods, Eizo, Canson and others. He is regularly invited to speak around the world on both photography and creativity, and is a sought-after photographic mentor and coach, receiving the International Mentor Award from IIC in 2023.
Tony’s photographic journey has seen him explore the genres of landscape, fine-art, aerial, portrait, & wedding photography, and his photography career has taken him to a diversity of locations around the world. His work has been exhibited consistently both within Australia and overseas, and he has chaired and judged photography competitions internationally for many years, including as a past Chairman of the AIPP’s Australian Professional Photography Awards (APPA).
With a passion for people, places and pictures, and an instinctive sense of the moment, Tony brings a unique combination of creative skills, award winning photographic vision and simple creativity.
David Oliver
G.M. Photog., FAIPP
David Oliver is a Nikon Ambassador and has featured in a number of Nikon promotions in recent years. In 2007, he was awarded Grand Master of Photography. The AIPP also honoured him with the distinction of an AIPP Fellow in recognition of the extraordinary photography achievements and commitment to the art of photography.
In 2009 David won the WPPI's Commercial Grand Award in Las Vegas, USA. Known worldwide for his individual and timeless work, David's style is unobtrusive and candid. It is what sets him apart as a wedding and portrait photographer at home and this in turn makes him a consummate travel photographer.
David hasn't been the chairman of the AIPP Australian Professional Photography Awards, but Peter and Tony feel like he might as well have because David chews their ears off about all sorts of issues to do with the awards! :>)
David has accepted commissions encompassing amazing locations from medieval castles in Ireland to the streets of Hong Kong and New York's Central Park. His passion for photography sees him in high demand as a speaker on his craft at overseas conventions. While travelling the world his camera is never far from his side and this dedication has enabled him to capture a large body of travel and landscape work.