PhotoGRAPHY Competition
PHOTOGRAPHER: NIKOLAS STRUGAR, RAVENS AT ODDS
The Annual Gold Coast Open House Photography Competition invites members of the local community to submit photos of buildings and places from our Self-Guided Tours program.
SPONSOrED BY
MEET THE JUDGES
The 2022 Photography Competition will be judged by the following leading Australian photographers who all specialise or have a keen interest in architecture.
John Gollings
In Australia, John Gollings has been making pictures of architecture for going on forty years. For nearly all the last third of the twentieth century and all of this to date, he has recorded the progress of modern architecture here and elsewhere. John has been prolific in capturing the essence of the modern Australian building: houses, carparks, sheds, toilets, public buildings, tall buildings, low buildings, wide buildings, freeway walls, road tunnels, cityscapes – John Gollings has photographed them. Often at speed: go in, get the shot, get out. It is likely that many of the photographs of Australian buildings we see published in books and magazines were taken by Gollings. His pictures are surely among the most reproduced and they have in and of themselves played a major role in shaping our perceptions of modern Australian architecture. They comprise a diverse mosaic of the evolving urban environment and a rich resource documenting the progress of architecture of the last forty years. John has a particular interest in the Gold Coast. Inspired by the work of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown in their book Learning from Las Vegas, John rephotographed sites that he had previously photographed in the 70’s, publishing the images side by side in his book Learning from Surfers Paradise, documenting the changes that Surfers Paradise has undergone in the last 40 years. With his interest in the heritage of our city, John is a perfect choice of judge for our competition.
Peter Thiedeke
Peter has a diverse history working internationally as a researcher+image maker=creative director, having produced inspired stills and moving image work across the physical and digital worlds for two decades.
Research, collaboration and creative problem-solving lie at the heart of his process. He provides bespoke services for digital agencies large and small, publishers, record companies, musicians, designers, web developers, entrepreneurs, architects, creative collectives, universities, galleries and museums.
As the son of the renowned architect, Graeme Thiedeke, Peter has been immersed in the world and culture of the architectural profession all his life and has recently designed his own, beautiful home on the Gold Coast.
TANJA BEER
Tanja Beer is an award-winning community artist, ecological designer and creative researcher specialising in spatial practices. Her work intersects with a diversity of disciplines and fields, including performance design, public art, event space, arts-science communication, co-design, exhibition design, installation, temporary architecture, landscape architecture, place-making and sustainability.
She has more than 25 years of professional experience, including creating designs for a variety of theatre companies, events, exhibitions and festivals in Australia (Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Museum, ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE festival, State Library of Queensland, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Federation Square, Queensland Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, The Arts Centre Melbourne) and overseas (including projects in New York, London, Glasgow, Cardiff, Austria and Tokyo).
Photography has been a vital part of documenting her spatial practice, with her work being featured at the V&A Museum (London) and the 2015 and 2019 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. Tanja has been on the jury for The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects 2019 and World Stage Design 2022.
Nikolas Strugar
Nikolas Strugar is a filmmaker and producer who’s company, Ravens At Odds, has been chosen as the official production company of Gold Coast Open House in 2021 and 2022. He works extensively within the architecture, built environment and creative industries, telling stories about people and place through film.
Nikolas’ career began in architecture, before a shift into film production. It’s with intimate knowledge and understanding of architecture that he approaches filmmaking. He draws upon a visual language that relates to the project, precise composition, considered colour, slowness, and subtlety.
Derek EntEsano
Derek’s art form is that of architectural visualisation. He created, and now runs Cottee Parker Architects’ Presentation Unit – providing the company’s architects and designers with an invaluable design tool. The rendered images he and his team create are a key element in the process of describing designs to clients and in bringing the project alive for them.
Derek constantly explores ways of using visualisation to create images that evoke emotional responses from clients and end users, in much the same way as photographers set up shots with the intention of evoking a particular response from their audience. As Derek is in the business of assisting architects in refining space, form and materiality in their designs by creating ‘photographs’ of buildings before they are built, he has a parallel interest in the photography of buildings and utilises architectural photography to inform his own work.
PHOTOGRAPHY: NIKOLAS STRUGAR, RAVENS AT ODDS
Gold Coast Open House proudly acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which our events are held, the Kombumerri and Yugambeh Language Group families of the Gold Coast. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging, and recognise their continuing connections to the lands, waters, wildlife and extended communities throughout South East Queensland.
