Young and old put their Sydney lives on show

The City of Sydney is seeking young, old, amateur and professional photographers to submit their best snaps of Sydney for this year’s Sydney Life and Little Sydney Lives competitions.

Art & About Sydney’s annual photography competitions will showcase finalist images blown up to bed-sheet size along Hyde Park’s tree-lined walkways for four weeks in September and October.

Entries are now open for both competitions, which last year attracted more than 800 entrants and an audience of tens of thousands of viewers.

“Sydney is a creative city. Each year Sydney Life and Little Sydney Lives encourage people to use that creativity and look at our city in a new light,” Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.

“The City of Sydney wants to make culture and creativity accessible to everyone. Art & About Sydney helps bring art out of galleries and into some of Sydney’s most beautiful public spaces like Hyde Park, where everyone can enjoy them.

“It’s fantastic to see the imaginative ways photographers of all ages interpret and capture scenes from across Sydney.

“Last year we received incredibly diverse entries, from hula hoops under the Harbour Bridge to market gardeners in Matraville. I look forward to seeing what Sydneysiders have in store for us this time around.”

Photographers of all levels of experience are invited to explore what Sydney means to them in Sydney Life, with 22 works to be selected by a judging panel and displayed along Hyde Park North’s grand central walkway.

The winner, who receives a $10,000 prize, will be announced at Art & About Sydney’s opening night in September.

Little Sydney Lives is calling for entrants in two age categories – three to seven and eight to 11. Twenty finalist works will be chosen for display in Hyde Park’s Sandringham Gardens.

Art & About Sydney Creative Director, Gill Minervini, said the competitions were two much-loved fixtures in the festival’s annual program.

“In 2013, Art & About Sydney is continuing the tradition of putting art in unusual spaces,” Ms Minervini said.

“Hyde Park will once again act as the perfect stage for our annual exhibition of inspiring, challenging and heart-warming photos.”

In 2012, Glebe resident Sally McInerney took out the $10,000 Sydney Life prize with her humorous photograph ‘Shark in Pool’, while four-year-old Duke Ryan and eight-year-old Jonathan Jones took honours in Little Sydney Lives.

“I’ve always loved Hyde Park and its avenue of fig trees where the Sydney Life photographs are displayed,” Sally McInerney said.

“People stroll along in that open-air gallery and have no shyness about pausing to have their photo taken in front of their favourite images – they know that they’re part of Sydney life too.

“It’s great exposure for the photographers’ work, and professionally it’s most encouraging. I was exhilarated to have my image chosen for the shortlist last year, and astonished to win the prize.”

Entries for both competitions are now open. Sydney Life closes on 28 June, while Little Sydney Lives closes on 12 July. For more information, visit: artandabout.com.au

Art & About Sydney will run from 20 September to 20 October 2013.

High-resolution images of last year’s finalist works are available for media.

For more information, contact City of Sydney Senior Media Adviser Keeley Irvin.
Phone 0448 005 718 or email kirvin@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au

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