CATCHING THE BUG

Celebrating its fifth year this year with a new venue – The Palace Verona Cinema – The Shutterbug Award for emerging photographers is one of the few to take advantage of using the big screen to exhibit its still images (along with a more traditional book). This year Shutterbug coordinator Marc Burlace and his judges sifted through over 2000 images to whittle it down to just 15 finalists to be shown on the awards night. Each photographer had to submit a series of shots on a single theme of their choice. With the competition open to all emerging photographers (anyone not working predominantly a professionally as a photographer), this year Shutterbug also opened itself to international photographers as well. That’s not to say that they had to go far for some of the best work. One of this years finalists is 18-year-old Paddington COFA student Jessica Harlow. She shot a series of predominately black and white images where she blended a model (her cousin) into a variety of wallpaper/newspaper-like backgrounds. Aside from producing a stunning array of shots she also learnt that newspaper glued to the human face can be hard to remove. It is not known if her cousin has forgiven her.

Tuesday June 7, 6-9 pm, Palace Verona Cinema, Oxford Street, Paddington, $55, moshtix.com.au