Rise International Photography Gold Award achieved by Auckland Photographer Chelsea Haworth
Chelsea Haworth Photography is proud to have been a finalist for the maternity category and is the only New Zealand
photographer to achieve a Gold award in this category. She also achieved 4 Silver and 7 Bronze Awards for her Maternity
and Newborn photographic entrances for the 2018 Rise International Photography awards in Brisbane Australia. The
international event celebrates maternity, birth, newborn, baby, children and Family Photographers from across the world.
Founded By Kelly Brown and Newbornposing.com, the RISE awards are open to photographers worldwide and Chelsea entered in
the inaugural running this year having heard about this competition from her connection to Kelly Brown, whom she met on
one of Kelly’s newborn photography workshops back in 2014.
There were more than 2000 entries and 120 finalists (20 in each category) and only 17 golds awarded in total.
Entries are scored out of 100 with Gold being in the 90-100 range. Winning a gold award demonstrates extraordinary
visual communication and creativity with outstanding technical skill. The combined judging experience across the 6
judges and chair person was 86 years.
This was the first image in the competition to be awarded gold and one of only two that scored a gold straight away in
the first round of scoring.
Some of the judges comments for this image were; “I love the flow of the fabric, the posing. It’s really sharp, sharp & soft. On the right hand side I see the pregnancy mirrored in that fabric. I think it’s been really well handled, very
nice.” “I absolutely love this image.”
The story behind the image of Chloe Green and her daughter Kiara: The expression of sadness through the faces and posing
of both mother and daughter are done deliberately to show the pain and loss of their previous baby by miscarriage. They
had actually fallen pregnant with their 3rd baby when they were due for their second, of whom they had lost the year
before. The chaos of the Golden gown represents the previous pain and turmoil that they had experienced with the loss of
their previous baby, as well as imitating the pregnant belly shape to the right (behind them) symbolising the previous
pregnancy which is both painful and beautiful. Their still appearance brings attention to their calm exterior which
shows their courage and strength despite the chaos and turmoil they’ve been through. The colours chosen are to symbolise
both beauty and strength while coming from a place of darkness and pain. The purpose of this portrait was to remember
their pain and loss while also celebrating their happiness and bright future ahead, in order to grieve and process their
pain in a healthy and comforting way.
Founded in 2012 Chelsea Haworth Photography tailors family and portrait sessions with a focus specializing in Maternity
and Newborn and a vision for Maternity to be bold brave and beautiful. Always honing her craft, Chelsea looks for ways
to innovate and improve her services to achieve global award level photography for her clients, including attending and
hosting workshops with some of the best Newborn photographers in the world. Constantly striving to improve her art and
produce the best products for her customers, Chelsea is very proud to have won these International awards.