14th Annual MPA Jury | 2024

Glenn Homann is an award winning iPhone Photographer based in Brisbane, Australia. True to the ethos of “always having the camera in your pocket”, his interests encompass all genres. Gliding from sweeping romantic landscapes to intimate street portraits, from grungy urban-details to architectural juxtaposition. Having the camera with him from dawn to dusk has shaped and honed Glenn’s work. This has allowed him to focus on the moments and details that might evade the eye at first glance. His attention to detail and focus on spontaneity are evident in the processing of the images too. Editing is also performed on the phone, often very soon after the image is captured, with the feelings and thoughts about his intentions with the image still fresh in the mind.

His photos, which lean into a minimal aesthetic have received awards in numerous competitions around the world, both for general photography and those exclusively for mobile devices. His work was also recently featured in the print version of Aesthetica. Numerous category wins at the Mobile Photography Awards (MPA) (including the 12th Annual MPA Grand Prize) and the Australian Photography Awards are a testament to his desire to push Mobile Photography to the limit. Other acknowledgments of Glenn’s photography include: Finalist Australian Life Photography Prize 2023, Finalist Sony World Photography Awards 2023, Finalist Heritage Bank Photographic Awards 2023, Winner iPhone Photography Awards (IPPAWARDS) 2022; Finalist Australian Head-On Photo Awards 2022, Finalist National Photographic Portrait Prize 2021, Category winner Minimalist Photography Awards 2023, Category winner Australian Photography Awards 2017.

Born in Hong Kong, Jacky Lee is a globally recognized visual artist specializing in landscape and architectural photography. Celebrated for his expertise in black-and-white photography while excelling in colour photography, he is the champion of the inaugural National Geographic Photography Contest (Hong Kong) – Landscape Section. His art pieces have been exhibited across Europe, North America and Asia, with features in the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) and Australian Photographic Society (APS).

A renowned photography judge, Jacky has adjudicated international competitions and is one of the very few photography mentors worldwide at the Photographic Society of America (PSA). His deep understanding of composition, visual storytelling and artistic vision has also led him to speak at institutions such as the University of Hong Kong (HKU).

Bringing over 20 years of experience in traditional photography, Jacky has extensively created his work using mobile photography in recent years and is now actively exploring and integrating AI photography into his creative practice.

Currently based in Australia, Jacky is the founder of the Photography Society of Hongkongers in Australia (PSHKA), where he promotes meditative photography and community engagement. His work continues to push creative boundaries, with recent publications including Immersification in Photographic Art: The Process of Creating a Perfect Image.

Lydia Suslova is a photographer and screenwriter researching the correlation of different art forms. Born in 1994 in Russia, she received a bachelor’s degree in international relations and is a scholarship holder of the Oxford Russia Fund. As a photographer and writer, she covered the Cannes Film Festival, Moscow International Film Festival, and Message to Man International Film Festival. Now Lydia is on the other side of the industry, writing scripts and making photos on her own.

Her creative practice mainly focuses on photography and film scripts. She shoots on film camera, digital camera, and phone. he photographs reveal the connection between light and form, the destruction of the effect of one-sided visibility. Light does not just show the object but creates the composition itself; all that remains is to see and capture the moment before it crumbles. A kind of return to the origins of photography, from the Greek roots “phos” means “light”, and “grapho” – “drawing”, together meaning “drawing with light”.

The transience of the moment also manifests itself in the creation of stories through screenplays in which Lydia follows the principle of Mono no aware (物の哀れ). It is a Japanese idiom for the awareness of impermanence and transience of things. Mono no aware literally means sensitivity to ephemera, sad charm of things, life, or the world, but at the same time, life-affirming, bright, sad, and dreary contemplation of the world and all that is in it. The concept means the impermanence and transience of things and, at the same time, a feeling of contemplative and light sadness or melancholy about their non-existence anymore. Understanding that this state is a given of the world and an essential part of life itself.

Mono no aware is the feeling that we have witnessed something good or bad, knowing that none of it can last forever. The awareness of the transience of all things enhances the understanding of their beauty. And that’s what Lydia does through photography — capturing the moment.