Community & Business
20 September, 2021
Local win in photography competition
Westbrook’s Margaret Kebble has taken out the Alwyn Kucks Memorial Award at the 2021 Heritage Bank Photographic Awards for “I will get it right.”
This award is only open to entrants residing within a 50km radius of Toowoomba.
Now in their 33rd year, the Heritage Bank Photographic Awards are a renowned competition in Australian photography circles.
They are open to all Australian residents, with no experience or qualification restrictions in place.
Mrs Kebble said the idea for the photo formed with her five-years-old grey ringneck Enza, who has a black and white collar, and her husband Robin.
“It was an idea we got when our bird really liked our
Rubik’s Cube,” Mrs Kebble said.
She said Enza was infatuated with picking at the Rubik’s Cube, so for the photo she made a cube for her husband’s head and used Photoshop to turn his face into segments of a cube.
Mrs Kebble said it was “quite a surprise to win” and she almost did not even realise it.
“The email went to junk mail so I didn’t see it,” Mrs Kebble said.
“I got a second email which said the opening night had been cancelled due to COVID with social distancing and so on but right at the end it said congratulations again for winning.”
For winning the Alwyn Kucks Memorial Award, Mrs Kebble received $2,000, a $100 voucher for Owen Camera House and a subscription to Australian Photography magazine.
Mrs Kebble, now retired, is a member of the Toowoomba Photographic Society and said photography is something she enjoys doing, especially creative and landscape pieces.
She had heard about the awards through the society a number of years ago.
“I’ve entered it for a few years. This year I had four entries, two in the Illustrative category and two in the open category.
Although Mrs Kebble’s photography talent shows in her winning the award, she said professional photography was not for her.
“I’ve done three weddings which were a lot of work and a lot of worrying about the shots being perfect.”
“I’d like to thank my husband for willing to be a model and Enza as well,” she said.
Heritage Bank CEO Peter Lock said the competition’s versatility contributed to its longevity and success in attracting participation for over three decades.
“We had another amazing response this year. We received over 2,300 entries from across Australia, with all states and territories represented,” Mr Lock said.
“It really goes to show the depth of talent and creativity in our wonderful country.
“The Awards are all about fostering the art of photography and encouraging people to get creative.”
Overall photographers shared a prize pool of $50,000, across the categories of Open, Themed (with the theme of ‘Helping Hands’), Illustrative, Mobile Phone Award, CEO’s Choice, Youth Photographer Award (for 9 and under, 10-13 and 14-17) and the Alwyn Kucks Memorial Award.
