PSC students win at AIPP Awards

Each year, final-year students studying at the Photography Studies College (PSC) enter the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP) Victorian Awards.

This year the cohort came back with a trove of accolades. Agata Myes won a gold distinction, two golds and two silvers, as well as emerging as Photographer of the Year.

Peter Bratuskins received an award for each of his three entries. His entries were winter themed – two were taken in Kutchan, Japan, and one at Mt Hotham.

“Kutchan is a working town that gets completely frozen. It’s got this dark, harsh look to it, but the longer you look the more you see people living their lives,” he said.

He said the AIPP awards pushed him to be a better photographer.

Another student, Peter Riordon, also won a gold award with an abstract architectural piece, while Stella Nyugen received two awards.

Peter Riordan’s abstract piece features an apartment building in Docklands, tightly-cropped, inverted and over-sharpened.

“It was something of an accident,” he said.

“I’d been playing around with inverting abstract photos of fireworks, and while I was processing that photo I accidentally clicked on the invert pre-set, and liked the look of it.”

Images in the awards are submitted into a specific category, with its own rules and regulations.

The images are submitted in print form, too. This puts huge importance on the quality of prints on top of the actual photograph.

The work is submitted anonymously and judged by the five experienced judges ­– who must hold a Masters of Photography degree or higher.

Students at PSC are now preparing for the national awards at the end of this month, hosted at the Melbourne Olympic Park Function Centre.