Historic Women In Sport Photo Action Awards Exhibition

The top national not-for-profit organisation, Women Sport Australia (WSA) will use a free public exhibition of the award-winning images from Women in Sport Photo Action Awards (WISPAA), to showcase the skill, strength and athleticism of Australia’s sportswomen in action.

WISPAA was created to help change media and public perception of women in sport. Ash Barty, Sam Kerr, Tayla Harris and Lisa Da Vanna are some of the leading athletes that were named finalists in the inaugural award.

WISPAA creator and Director of Women Sport Australia, Louise Evans, said the exhibition, featuring 30 images taken by the WISPAA winners, runners-up and finalists, marks another historic milestone in the evolution of women in sport in Australia.

“For the first time there will be a public exhibition devoted solely to stunning action photographs of Australia’s female athletes in fight, performing great feats and fearlessly fighting to succeed,” Louise said.

“You will be able to get up close and marvel at the intimidating level of power, courage, control and skill captured in these inspirational images by the award-winning WISPAA photographers.”

In an attempt to engage both elite and amateur photographers, two WISPAA award categories were launched, one for professionals and one for amateur photographers.

Hundreds of images were submitted by hundreds of photographers around Australia in an overwhelming response.

Tayla Harris was named the winner for the professional category for the photo action awards. Her photograph taken by ALFW senior photographer, Michael Willson, went viral after it was targeted by online trolls.

Tayla even sparked the hashtag #Taylarkickchallenge, which was used over 400 times by other girls and women, posting photos of them kicking online.

Judge Louise Evans said the image perfectly captured the essence of women performing at the highest level and depicted an athlete executing “the perfect play.”

30 of the submitted images that have been selected by WISPAA judges will go on public display in Melbourne’s CBD from June 11-28.

To view the thumbnails of all winners, runners-up and finalists, click here.