French photographer, Antoine Bruy, was presented with the 2017 Next Photographer Award at a private view held for photography and creative experts during D&AD Festival 2017. His project, Outback Mythologies: The White Man’s Hole, is a study of Australian Outback.

“These photographs are from my series The White Man’s Hole about the town of Coober Pedy in South Australia, which is considered to be the Opal Capital of the World,” Bruy commented.

“The White Man’s Hole is the second chapter of an ongoing project called Outback Mythologies about the Australian Outback and its importance for Australian identity.”

Bruy has won a US$5,000 prize fund from Getty Images to create a dream photograph project.

Andy Saunders, senior vice president, creative content at Getty Images and Next Photographer judge, commented, “The standard of entries was pretty amazing this year and it’s clear the reputation of the Next Photographer programme has gone up. Choosing a winner was difficult, Antoine Bruy showed a level of originality and technical competence that raised the bar for the competition. The programme is a genuine springboard for the future or shortlisted artists and of course especially for the winner.”

The D&AD Next Photographer Award is in its third year. This year’s shortlist is

• Aleksey Kondratyev, Ice Fisher, USA
• Alex Mehedff, Conflict Zone, Brazil
• Anna Shustikova, Gorko!, Russia
• Artur Golacki, Talking Trees, UK
• Cian Oba-Smith, Concrete Horsemen, UK
• Dean Davies, Pretend You’re Waiting For a Bus, UK
• Elzbieta Kurowska, Light Forms, Canada
• Jack Latham, Sugar Paper Theories, UK
• Johnny Miller, Unequal Scenes, South Africa
• Katherine Needles, Time at the Lake, UK
• Laetitia Vancon, At the End of the Day, Germany
• Lissa Rivera, Beautiful Boy, USA
• Louis De Belle, Besides Faith, Germany
• Matthieu Litt, Horsehead Nebula, Belgium
• Nicky Hamilton, The Lonely Man, UK
• Ofir Barak, The Streets of Mea Searim, Israel
• Sandra Mehl, Ilona and Maddelena, France
• Shai Chishty, Mecca-hattan, UK
• Souvid Datta, President, Orphans, Escape, Vanishing Girls and Hope, UK
• Zachary Roberts, An American Family, Sweden 

See all their work here.

Shortlisted creatives receive prizes designed to provide the launchpad for a future career, including:

• International exposure for their work through D&AD and Getty Images
• Mentorship from a wide portfolio of acclaimed photographers, agents and advertising agencies
• An exhibition in London during the D&AD Festival 2017, at The Old Truman Brewery from 25 – 27 April