Northern Beaches Council has announced the finalists for its annual Underwater Photography competition.
The community can vote for their preferred image in the People’s Choice Award until Sunday, 21 September. All images are available for viewing on the Council website, where participants can also cast their votes online.
Northern Beaches Mayor said the images have captured the extraordinary beauty and diversity of life beneath the waves.
“The Northern Beaches is home to some of Australia’s most stunning aquatic reserves, and this exhibition not only showcases the talent in our community and also highlights the importance of preserving our unique marine habitats for future generations,” Mayor Heins said.
“I encourage everyone to visit the exhibition online, cast their vote for their favourite image, and join us in celebrating the wonders of our oceans.”
The aim of the exhibition is to celebrate the flora and fauna of Council’s five Aquatic Reserves on the Northern Beaches with this year’s theme Wonder, sustaining what sustains us in line with the World Ocean Day 2025.
The winners for each category, the People’s Choice and the major prize – The Valerie Taylor Underwater Photography Award for Excellence – will be announced at the prize giving ceremony in November 2025.
The finalists in the eight categories are:
Photography
1. Behaviour: Capturing natural behaviour of marine life.
Peter Hutchins
Johnavan Ford
Eddy Price
Taj Burrowes
Xina Hudson
2. Macro: Getting up close to the subject matter.
Xina Hudson
Alexander Gunter
Teya McEwan
Taj Burrowes
Eddy Price
3. Threatened Species: Portraying the vulnerability of a threatened species found, for example: black rod cod, grey nurse shark, green turtle.
Euan Thomas
Gerrad Kennedy
Eddy Price
Lesley Spencer
Nicole Sroba
4. Human Connection: Capturing the positive or negative connection between a person(s) and marine life (flora/fauna/megafauna). This could include monitoring citizen science projects or research undertaken in one of the Northern Beaches aquatic reserves.
Alana Abercrombie
Peter Hutchins
David Bellas
Rosie Richards
Johnavan Ford
5. Seascapes (wide angle): Capturing the raw beauty of the underwater vista in one of the Northern Beaches aquatic reserves.
Gaia Nash
Peter Gosper
Strath Clarke
Mark Endres
David Bellas
6. Youth: For the budding young photographers aged 12 to 17 years old. The winner will be recognised as the Underwater Youth Photographer of the Year 2025.
Emily Sonter
Andre Chmielweski
Evelyn Christopher
Raphael Hampartzoumian
Lorence Hampartzoumian
Reels
7. Youth Reels (12 to 17 years): Capturing the wonder of the biodiversity in our underwater world. Reel length is 15 to 30 seconds duration.
Jesse Loffel
Ezra Boulton
Otto Lourecco
Eugene Lee
8. Open Reels: 18+ years: Capturing the wonder of the biodiversity in our underwater world. Reel length is 15 to 30 seconds duration.
Mauricio Fuentes
Terence Tong
Kim Dunbar
Lauren Elder
Emilie Pettersson
The experienced judges include:
Katherine Roberts: Senior Curator at the Manly Art Gallery & Museum.
Peter McGee: a multi award winning local nature and underwater photographer, SCUBA diver and conservationist.
Jayne Jenkins: avid diver and distinguished underwater photographer.
We have only shown a small selection of the entries. Please go to Council’s website (here) to view the full range and vote for your favourite.
Check out last year’s winners:
