Guardian Australia’s picture editor, Carly Earl, has won the $10,000 top award in the 2025 Australian Life photography competition, with the judges praising Earl for capturing “a beautiful insight into reality of life in rural Australia” in her portrait of young drovers in central Queensland.
Earl, a Sydney-based photographer and picture editor for Guardian Australia, took the portrait of 19-year-old Riley Swanson while covering a droving team working south of Roma in central Queensland.
“Young drovers in rural Australia spend months on horseback moving cattle, far from modern distractions,” Earl wrote in her artist statement for the winning work. “Sleeping in trailers and riding 12-hour days, they face isolation, injury risks and financial loss. Many quit early, but a few, like Riley Swanson, endure the harsh, romanticised life on remote, decades-old stock routes.”
Australian Life, an annual competition and exhibition run by the City of Sydney council as part of their public art program Art and About, showcases works from amateur and professional photographers.
Earl’s photograph, one of 30 finalist images across different age categories, was awarded the top prize by judges Hank Paul, who won last year; photographer Milly Hooper; and documentary and travel photographer Matt Horspool.
Hooper said Earl’s portrait offered “a beautiful insight into reality of life in rural Australia – an ordinary story that most city folk wouldn’t be aware of”, while Horspool praised her “use of shadows, colour and composition”.
Earl’s win was announced at a ceremony at Sydney’s Customs House on Thursday night, along with the winners of Australian Life’s youth category, open to photographers aged 13 to 17, and the Little Sydney Lives competition, open to photographers aged five to 12.
Callum Poling won Australian Life’s teen category for his black and white photograph February Boat Carnival, showing the “organised chaos” of a surf boat carnival, while Chloe Wiseman won the Little Sydney Lives category with a black and white portrait of her mum titled Home-made Mummy Double-Exposure, using a double-exposure technique.
Zoe Morris was named runner up with her ebullient photograph Sibling Love, capturing “the close bond between a brother and a sister”.
The finalists from Australian Life will be showcased in an outdoor exhibition at Circular Quay, while the finalists for the Little Sydney Lives competition will be exhibited at Customs House nearby.
The Australian Life and Little Sydney Lives exhibitions run until 24 August, at Customs House Square and Customs House Library, respectively.
