Cause

Communities or organisations making a positive environmental impact

Grant

Financial support for both the cause and the story

Project

Your story, told via photos or video – presented, exhibited or roadshowed (with help from CameraPro) to gain exposure for your cause

Criteria 

What?

Your proposed photography/video project should focus on relatively remote or unknown Australian places and ecosystems. The judges are looking for creativity that has impact and a strong reach.

When?

Applications are open from August 15th to November 30th 2022. 

How?

2022 CameraPro Explorer’s Grant Recipients

Miriam Deprez
(2022 Photography Recipient)

Miriam Deprez is a photojournalist and PhD candidate whose ongoing doctoral research focuses on the visual politics of violence and resistance. Miriam began working with SafeGround in 2017, documenting WWII-era unexploded ordnance in the Solomon Islands and Palau, with their efforts resulting in a book and exhibition at the United Nations in Geneva.

Miriam’s project, Land and Legacy, is a collaboration with Traditional Owners and SafeGround to explore South Australia’s Lake Hart region and visually document the physical evidence of weapons and shrapnel and the harm it inflicts upon landscapes, ecosystems, sacred sites, and the Kokatha people. Working with senior Kokatha man and land custodian, Andrew Starkey will guide Miriam and SafeGround as they photograph the vast, unique landscapes of the Lake Hart region.

Mark Bennett
(2022 Videography Recipient)

Mark has spent the last ten years as a full-time video journalism reporter, providing rural and regional stories for ABC TV, Radio News, and LandLine. He connected with The Walpole-Nornalup National Park Association when covering a story about their wilderness preservation endeavours. Inspired by their essential work, he volunteered his services to help with promotion and securing funding for surveys and public information projects. 

Mark’s project, Protect the Walpole Wilderness, will build on his previous volunteer collaboration with the Association by creating a new video showcasing botanists and scientists' work in the Walpole wilderness area. The new project will focus on protecting the giant Tingles and the ancient peat swamps, illuminating how vital it is to restrict the amount of prescribed burning in these areas conducted by the State Government that threatens the viability of this fragile area. Mark’s project will record valuable information on rare, common, and even new species in the area, significantly contributing to future land management and hopefully persuading State and Federal Government bodies to preserve this area for generations to come.

Previous Recipients

Jannico Kelk
(2021 Photography Recipient)

Jannico Kelk is a wildlife photographer and videographer at Natural Australia Expeditions, co-founded with Jonathan Lucas. He has won and been shortlisted in several wildlife photography competitions and works alongside conservation NGOs

Jannico's project, Natural Australia Expeditions: The Mary River Turtle, seeks to shed light on the critically endangered Mary River turtle and Tiaro Landcare, the grass-roots community group dedicated to protecting this unique reptile from extinction.

Paul Daley
(2021 Videography Recipient)

Paul Daley is specialises in regenerative storytelling. Paul’s keen interest in ecosystem restoration and regenerative culture led him to work on grassroots projects throughout Indonesia. He is inspired to deepen local connections and create content that supports solution-focused storytelling.

Paul’s project, Fire Lore: Indigenous Cultural Burning, continues his work with the Githabul peoples and local fire ecologists to raise community awareness on the crucial need for indigenous land management through cultural burning.  

Nicholas Carmichael
(2021 Junior Recipient)

Nicholas Carmichael is inspired to pursue documentary filmmaking and wilderness photography as a medium to create societal change. A winner of several competitions, he would like to explore how editing choices can improve the audience engagement of documentaries

Nicholas’ project, Saving Tasmania's Kelp Forests draws attention to the alarming decline of Tasmania’s giant kelp forests, and the research and action being taken to save and restore this very important marine ecosystem from extinction.

Martin Stinger
(2019 Recipient)

Martin Stringer is a Melbourne photographer, filmmaker, and cancer survivor whose love of nature has inspired his work with numerous environmental NGOs from Australia to remote Nepal.

Martin’s project, Replanting a Rainforest, sets out to raise awareness, funds and seedlings to help restore, protect and buy back the Daintree, Australia's most ancient and biodiverse rainforest.

Sarah Osborn
(2019 Recipient)

Natalia Mroz
(2019 Recipient)

Natalia Mroz is an Australian photographer, writer and audiovisual producer. For more than 15 years Natalia has documented social and environmental issues for the UN and assorted NGOs all over the globe.

Natalia’s project, Samburu Tribe and the Grevy's Zebra Trust, engages indigenous African communities to maximise conservation outcomes for endangered species.

Jimmy White
(2018 Recipient)

Jolyon Hoff
(2018 Recipient)

Jolyon is an Australian filmmaker who's fascinated by subcultures, identity and community. The Staging Post, his critically acclaimed 2017 film about Afghan refugees stranded in Indonesia, helped spark a refugee-led education revolution.

Jolyon’s project focuses on Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre – a refugee-run school in West Java teaching 2,000 refugee children unable to attend schools. 

Marcus Wong
(2018 Recipient)

Marcus Wong is a Perth-based photographer, filmmaker and graphic designer who was named the 2019 WA Young Volunteer of the Year. Through his work, Marcus is dedicated to voicing the untold stories of people in developing countries.

Marcus’ project focuses on Rafiki Africa Ministries, Buwooya Mission School, EthiopiAid and Action Ethiopia – locally run Ugandan and Ethiopian aid organisations assisting disadvantaged children, women and local farmers.

“Thanks to the CameraPro Explorer's Grant, I am creating a short film to delve deeper and to share stories from the oldest continually evolving rainforest in the world, the Daintree Rainforest which is very dear to my heart. 

Furthermore, CameraPro has also donated to Rainforest Rescue enabling the planting of more trees and ensuring that more rainforest is protected forever thus creating wildlife corridors for endangered and threatened species such as the Southern Cassowary and Bannett's Tree Kangaroo”

“This grant allows me to continue a project that is really important to me, to [survivor of institutional abuse] Margaret and to the Forgotten Australian community.

It will allow me to…raise awareness of Forgotten Australians, be with Margaret as she undergoes her court case to seek justice, and also…give back to a charity that is helping vulnerable children in our society.”

“So grateful to CameraPro who funded this trip to be able to tell the stories of small organisations who often don’t have the resources to be able to tell their story to an international audience”