Australian Life photography competition 2025 finalists

The Guardian

11-07-2025

Young drovers in rural Australia spend months on horseback moving cattle, far from modern distractions. 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. Photograph: Carly Earl
Chris lost his home in the catastrophic floods of 2022. Due to being flood affected and the ongoing housing crisis in Lismore, he's been occupying a government buy-back house. He recently received an eviction notice, leaving him with no other options. Photograph: Elise Derwin
Captured over the summer holidays, this photo shows an Australian family enjoying a picnic, with the father smoking a traditional hookah. Part of the Summer Highway series, it reflects the vibrant blend of cultural traditions and Australian beach life, where families picnic, play and connect. Photograph: Natalie Grono
Max is the son I always dreamed of, perfect in my eyes, though he struggles with societal gender expectations and because of this, at just four years old, he described feeling like his body was 'broken'. Now eight, Max finds comfort with friends who accept him for who he is. Photograph: Rob Palmer
My three sons in the bath, determined to still fit in there together. From the ongoing series 'Brothers', a visceral journey of childhood, navigating the emotional landscape of siblings. A journey of transformation, connection and becoming. Photograph: Camilla Johansson-Merrick
I took this photo of my sister as she was moving goats around in a yard. The dust started billowing up so much so one could hardly see. Photograph: Rachael Ryan
Acceptance is elusive and the very need for it is disputed by the middle way of chaos and control. Each element within this world is placed and carefully curated over months of world-building among the wind, flies and unusual sandy heat. Photograph: Dave Laslett
Every Wednesday during summer, at dawn, a group of revellers who call themselves Cold Nips, gather for a dip in the Indian Ocean to start their day. The red pontoon at South Beach in Fremantle is not only a local icon but an invitation to climb, jump or dive no matter your age. Photograph: Lidia D'Opera
Enter Sabio's Tasmanian world of handmade objects: fantastical, grotesque, visceral, often pulling the carpet from beneath you. Opposite sides of Sabio are captured here. In 2022, Sabio's world was upturned by aggressive cancer, a double mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. She rose fantastically from the ashes. Photograph: Chrissie Hall
Melbourne's beloved Gasometer Hotel was a maze of graffiti-covered walls, sticky beer-stained stairways, and a dancefloor beneath a retractable roof — and for this party at least, a clothesline. When word spread the venue was closing, friends and lovers gathered for one last dance, one final night of music, memories and movement before the wrecking ball arrived. Photograph: Louis Lee
On this scorcher of a day, Adelaide topped the charts as the hottest city on Earth. While the kids watched on, it was the poodle who stole the show — charging through the spray like a beast unleashed, ears flying, water everywhere. Pure joy in motion, beating the heat in true Aussie style. Photograph: Melissa Crisa
I captured this frame during the crowded Ramadan Nights at Lakemba this year. It was very interesting to see how the person was focused completely preparing the dish. Light and smoke was apt, even in the crowd I was lucky to get a glimpse of it and captured the frame. Photograph: Prasad Gaanesh
Louie and Max met for the first time minutes before this image was taken. In between changing film rolls, the boys compared scars and spoke about masculinity. Photograph: Robert Tennent
From a series entitled The Community Cup that documents the 2024 Louth Cup, the largest outback race in NSW. It features the official volunteer timers as the horses cross the line during one of the seven races in the program. The whole event is almost entirely volunteer-run. Photograph: Joe Kennedy
In the midst of an Australian heatwave, 27 year-old Jarryd couldn't help but to cool off. So what better way to do so than to crack a cold one... all over himself. While unconventional and messy, it serves as a satisfying reward after a hard day's work. Photograph: Brooke Rochow
Late in 2024, I picked up an old digital camera with a CCD sensor to see what the hype was about. A few weeks later, while my partner Fiona was making coffee, I casually snapped this photo from the couch. I didn't think much of it—until a month later, when looking for a submission for Australian Life, I realised how much it captured. This image distils the best parts of my life in Sydney – moments that have become my fondest memories. Photograph: Jourdain Vitiello
Alice's eight-year-old daughter, Frieda, is one of thousands of children in Australia experiencing 'school can't' – difficulty attending school due to emotional distress, sometimes linked to neurodiversity. 'It's a really lonely and confusing and shameful world because you assume that you are the problem,' the Sydney mum said. This image was taken as part of a 2024 ABC Four Corners investigation, in collaboration with filmmaker Sascha Ettinger-Epstein. Photograph: Mridula Amin
Self portrait of my son and I, after another lonely sleepless night. Sleep deprivation can be so crippling. And with bed-sharing the only thing that brought reprieve, shame was often an emotion that was felt, due to social pressures and expectations on how to be a good mum.
Photograph: Grace Alexander