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One of Australia’s richest photographic awards with prizes totalling over $30,000 has been won by an American photographer.

An international panel of judges selected an underwater photo taken on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico as the winner of the inaugural Frank Hurley Photography Awards from over 1200 entries and 26 countries.

The winning photograph was taken by Jason Gulley of Tampa, Florida, who won an all expenses Antarctic expedition cruise donated by Sydney-based Chimu Adventures and other prizes valued at about $20,000.

Organised by the not-for-profit Mawson’s Huts Foundation, the awards were an international competition to find the best in new photography honouring the spirit of this iconic Australian photographer James Francis (Frank) Hurley.

The winners of the five categories were announced by the Deputy Lord Mayor of Hobart, Councillor Helen Burnet at the launch of an exhibition of the finalists’ photographs at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery today. The exhibition is on display until February 28.

Category winners were:

Portrait of adventure:  “Cenote Angelina Cloud”  by Jason Gulley – Tampa, Florida, USA

Nature and wildlife: “Flight of the penguins” by Andrew Dickman – Flagstaff Hill, South Australia

Polar: “Ursus Maritimus” by David Sinclair- Hobart, Tasmania

Scenic: “Isolated Cell” by Will Eades – Port Macquarie, NSW

Composition: “Mutant” by Benjamin Maze – Peakhurst, NSW

The awards will be held every alternate year to the Australian Antarctic Festival in Hobart who also stages a polar photographic competition.

Marketing co-ordinator of the awards Sam Edmonds said the inaugural awards were an outstanding success and also helped to illustrate the depth of photography in Australia.

“For the Frank Hurley Photography Awards’ inaugural year, our panel of judges faced an enormous task to whittle down a pool of entrant images that was both large and of an extremely high standard,” said Sam

 “With the exception of the overall winner, all other category winners of this year’s awards hail from Australia – a statistic that we are proud of in helping to promote Australian photography but at the same time, given our entrants came from 26 countries, we are elated to say that the Frank Hurley Photography Awards has already established itself as a truly international contest,” he said.