Meet the winners of the 2025 Galah Regional Photography Prize.
Lisa Sorgini wasn't setting out to create images when she witnessed the impact of the February 2022 floods around Lismore.
Sorgini – who lives at Ocean Shores in the NSW Northern Rivers region – and a friend had instead looked for ways to help while juggling young children and had taken sandwiches and drinks to some of those dealing with the devastation.
“I’m not a photojournalist and I’m uncomfortable capturing people’s difficulties if I can’t relate to it. I was pretty reserved about taking images at the time, although I took a few,” she said.
One of the results is The Flood, a diptych of two images that was announced as the winner of the $25,000 Galah Regional Photography Prize at a party at the New England Regional Art Museum in Armidale on Friday.
Sorgini grew up in the Northern Rivers region and went to high school in Lismore. On Friday she dedicated the award to her Italian-born father, who died a few weeks ago: “He would have been so proud and happy.”
The winning images show Sorgini’s nature-loving son Ari ankle-deep in mud along with a scene of the flood aftermath. Sorgini said it’s a work that reflects her concern – and challenges as a parent – over climate change and how it is reshaping communities and lives.
“That image is textbook Ari, who is really in tune with the environment. The positive in the climate challenge is the way children engage with it and maybe they’re the great hope for dealing with it.”
Sorgini’s work has been awarded and exhibited internationally and in July she will be part of a major Australian exhibition at the Rencontres d’Arles 2025. She is also releasing a book, In Passing, in the next few months.
She said the award was a confirmation of the great talent outside the major cities and a way of connecting regional artists.
Adam Ferguson, one of the five judges and inaugural prize winner in 2023, said the judging panel had looked for images that provided a new or previously unseen perspective on Australia. Sorgini had managed to examine the effect of environmental catastrophe and extreme weather through a very intimate lens.
“It's easy for imagery to focus on the sensational or iconic. Lisa’s work is quite a personal way of looking at climate change. She’s managed to tell the macro through the micro.”
Another Lismore artist, Tajette O’Halloran, and Pia Johnson, of Woodend, Vic., were highly commended.
The $2000 People's Choice award went to Sweetheart, Merriwa, an image by Maitland photographer Thérèse Maher of her daughter Eugenie giving a final farewell to a beloved horse.
The Excellence in Photojournalism award went to Kalgoorlie photographer m ellen burns for her work Tilly Time. Burns will receive mentoring sessions with GoodWeekend photographers and editors.
If you couldn't make it to Armidale in person, but want to see the winners receiving their Golden Galahs, catch up here.
And check out all 42 images in the 2025 Galah Regional Photography Prize in the catalogue, here. You can also buy works from the exhibition and support regional photographers while building your contemporary photography collection.
The $27,000 Galah Regional Photography Prize is the richest regional photography prize in the nation, attracted more than 1100 entries from across regional Australia and its five judges had to compile a final shortlist of 42 works from 37 photographers.
The award was established to shine a light on the talent in regional Australia and to promote the artists behind it.
Galah was established to tell the story of regional Australia that goes beyond stereotypes of simple country people dealing with hardship when we know instead it is full of smart, clever, resilient people and opportunities.
Editor-in-chief Annabelle Hickson says the prize – and its significant prizemoney – signals just how serious Galah is about supporting regional artists.
“We need them to live in our regional communities, to tell our stories, to make beautiful art, to create the cool factor that might draw other people into the town – like doctors or teachers and other people we are crying out for,” Hickson said.
The prize could not have happened without the support and collaboration of NERAM and Armidale Regional Council.
Our official charity partner was the Country Education Foundation, empowering young people from across regional Australia through education.
And our wonderful media partners were GoodWeekend and Found Regional and its platform REGGIE.
Galah subscribers played their part too. In 2023, Hickson saw how even being a finalist could be a financial burden on entrants. This year Galah teamed with the Australian Cultural Fund to create an “artist subsidy fund”. Our flock donated $21,695, which was shared among the finalists to help cover the cost of printing, framing and freight.
Thank you for helping us bring this prize to life.
Judges had the daunting task of whittling down more than 1100 entries to the 42 finalists before choosing a winner.
The brave judging panel was made up of 2023 winner Adam Ferguson, NERAM director Rachael Parsons, Good Weekend magazine editor Katrina Strickland, acclaimed portrait photographer Hugh Stewart and Galah's art editor Fiona Bateman.
Ferguson said entries had been a great representation of regional talent and it had been exciting to walk around the exhibition as part of the final judging. He said art had an important role in telling stories in new ways.
He also spoke of the importance of artistic rigour: “A pretty picture isn’t enough.” It’s why he saw the artists’ statements and the stories behind the images as a critical component of their work.
Rachael Parsons doesn’t take much prompting to speak of the value of art or the role art galleries and museums can play in regional communities. She can also speak to the benefits art prizes.
“Regional galleries and art are intrinsic to the vitality of the communities. Galleries are more than just walls to hang artworks. They’re spaces where communities can engage in culture and ideas,” she said.
“Art prizes serve an important purpose, attracting interest outside the regular art world. They provide new opportunities and a platform for artists in public galleries. And people who work in museums and galleries take notice.”
Parsons had been at NERAM for two years before she was appointed director in 2018. She has been wearing two hats recently, adding the role of Galah Regional Photography Prize judge to her day job.
Like Ferguson, she spoke of the challenge of judging when the quality of entries had been so high but also the fascination of learning what had drawn fellow judges to different works. She also said there had been an incredible response to the exhibition of finalists’ work, which continues until 8 June.
