The Results 2025

Talking with our judges, Grand Masters of Photography David Oliver and Tony Hewitt, we agreed that the standard of our 'amateur' competition was every bit as good as the professional competitions out there. Our entrants have skills and imagination that dissolve the distinction between pro and amateur.

And at the top of the competition this year is Hardijanto Budiman, the 2025 Better Photography Magazine's Photographer of the Year. To win the overall award, the five highest scoring portfolios (each portfolio comprising four entries) are assessed and judged a second time by our panel. Congratulations, Hardijanto!

This year, we had 864 entries and a record number of golds and silvers - 45 golds and 441 silvers. In fact, we had more silvers than bronzes - which gives you an idea of how high the standard has become.

When entering our competition, there are two processes at work. The first is the 'standard' of the entry – Bronze, Silver or Gold. The judges have decades of experience assessing photographs and, in their mind, they know the scores they need to award for a Bronze, Silver or Gold. There's no limit to the number of these awards they can deliver – if your entry reaches their standard, that's the score you get. This score feedback is incredibly valuable for photographers looking to improve their work.

If your entries show skill or imagination in one area, we'll award a Bronze as an acknowledgement you're on the right track. However, to reach Silver, you really have to be doing everything right and a Silver in our photography competition is very likely to receive a Silver in a professional awards as well. And as for Golds – well, we're quite comfortable saying that as judges, we'd like to have taken those photos ourselves!

The second process is a comparative one. When we hand out the five major prizes, the judges are comparing the top five scoring entries against each other. Which landscape photograph is 'the best'? Which portfolio of four entries should win the Photographer of the Year? To get to this stage, you have to have a top scoring entry, but this gives the judges a second chance to ensure they are in agreement (not that we're always in agreement)! It's important for all entrants to realise that this second process is a matter of personal opinion and bias, no matter how experienced the judges are, and no matter how objective we try to be. And that's why we suggest entrants aim to earn Silvers for all their entries, as this is a truer reflection of your skill than winning a category or the overall prize!

Not that we wish to diminish the winners at all! In addition to the Photographer of the Year, we have four categories and the winners are:

Classic Landscape: Jim Picot ('Floating Boat')

Emotive Portraiture: Lucas Onnis ('Solitude')

Revealing Nature: Oliver Lahrem ('Die Küchenschelle')

Open (Your Choice): Mouneb Taim ('Living With War')

Each category winner takes home AUS $750 and the Photographer of the Year $2000! My thanks once again to judges Tony Hewitt and David Oliver for their assistance.

There will be an article in the December 2025 issue of Better Photography featuring the winners and telling you about the stories behind their images.

If you're an entrant reading this on the competition website, you should have received an email by now with your results, the awards you won (if any) and the helpful judge comment. Well, I hope the comments are helpful. I wrote a lot more personal comments this year, trying to refine the assistance being provided, so please take all the comments in the right spirit – we're always trying to help!

You can also see your scores by logging onto the competition site here and going to your account.

Thanks to everyone for entering and looking forward to seeing you back again next year!

Peter Eastway

Head Judge