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Matt Payne

Matt Payne is a landscape photographer and mountain climber from Durango, Colorado. He’s the host of the weekly landscape photography podcast, “F-Stop Collaborate and Listen,” co-founder of the Nature First Photography Alliance, and co-founder of the Natural Landscape Photography Awards. He lives with his wife, Angela, his son Quinn, and his four cats, Juju, Chara, Arrow, and Vestal.

mattpaynephotography.com

One of the best parts of organising the Natural Landscape Photography Awards is that it has provided a mechanism through which I can discover and appreciate photographers and their work, especially those that adhere to a more “natural” editing style. One such photographer that immediately captivated me with her work was Mieke Boynton, a photographer living in the small mountain town of Bright, Australia. Mieke owns and operates a photography gallery there with her partner and last year’s winner of the NLPA’s Project of the Year, Matt Palmer.

While Mieke’s work has not eluded the attention of other competitions in the past (she is the first Australian and first female to win the Epson International Pano Awards in 2019 and, that same year, was also named Victorian Landscape Photographer of the Year), I believe that her work has not yet been fully appreciated by her peers across the pond in the UK or in the USA. In my opinion, Mieke is a world-class landscape photographer. In this article, I hope to convey how Mieke’s approach to photography has elevated her work, how her immeasurable passion and aptitude for aerial photography have differentiated her from her peers, and how her desire to honour the Aboriginal people of Australia has given her work purpose.