Mono Awards 2024
by Kym Ramadge, October 2024
I am both honoured and humbled one of my black and white landscape images received a Top 30 Award in the 2024 Mono Awards, in the Places category.
The image is named Inside the Vortex and is an infrared, long exposure of the abandoned lime kilns at Walkerville South, Victoria.
As a professional graphic designer with 30+ years industry experience, I have at this point, seen many thousands of design projects I worked on, art directed or contributed to either, printed, manufactured or published in the digital sphere. Naturally, many of these have been special projects, close to my heart. However, this is the first time my personal creative work has been awarded and published in a national publication, side-by-side with extremely beautiful and artistic images by accomplished photographers.
Further, of the ten images I entered in the Mono Awards this year, six were Commended, three Highly Commended, with Inside the Vortex published at #28.
Infrared is a remarkable, intoxicating medium. I had an older camera body converted. This means the sensor was changed and the camera calibrated for the lenses I use. Infrared captures light our human eyes cannot detect. It is perfectly suited to black and white photography as it defines tones in an other-worldly outcome. For example, on a bright sunny day, it will turn the sky black. Foliage will turn white, reflecting the sunlight.
Inside the Vortex was taken during a windstorm. Anyone who knows Waratah Bay on the Gippsland coast will be familiar with the changeable weather patterns. Walkerville holds some of Victoria’s most prominent and ancient geology. There is always something new to experience at this location.
The Mono Awards launched in 2019. There are three categories: People, Places, Animals. 2024 marks the sixth year with over 3,500 entries.
The Mono Awards is a truly special showcase of the best black and white photography, and a celebration of the diversity of this wonderful genre.
The competition is run by Yaffa Media Pty Ltd, publisher of Australian Photography and Capture.
