“It carried more emotional weight than I had realized at the time,” says award-winning photographer about her “ordinary” black-and-white portrait

Sometimes we take a photo which, in the moment, doesn’t strike us as outstanding, only to later realize just how powerful the scene is. That’s the sentiment from Carly Goldsmith, who was recently crowned the winner of the “People” category at the 2026 Mono Awards.

Hosted by Australian Photography and Capture magazines, the annual photography competition celebrates the world’s best black-and-white (monochromatic) imagery, this year attracting over 3,000 entries from Australia, New Zealand and other nations worldwide.

Carly Goldsmith’s gear and settings: Canon EOS 6D Mark II | Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM | 1/4000 sec | f/1.4 | ISO 100

Childhood, Goldsmith’s winning image, captured the endearing moment of the photographer’s two youngest children playing together in their back garden. While not an unordinary scene, the frame captured a lasting sense of innocence and youth.

“As the sun dropped lower in the sky, it cast a beautifully defined shadow across the fence,” Goldsmith told the competition organizers. “It was an unposed, ordinary moment, but when I reviewed the image later, it carried more emotional weight than I had realized at the time,” she explained.

Andy Zakeli’s gear and settings: Hasselblad X2D 100C | Hasselblad XCD 45P | 45mm | 1/90 sec | f/4.8 | ISO 3200

This year, The Mono Awards accepted images across two further categories: “Places” and “Animals.”

New South Wales-based Andy Zakeli was named winner of the former for his quirky scene at Sydney’s Gadigal Station, which came about from “experimenting” with different angles of the metro station’s architecture.

Speaking to Australian Photographer, he said: “I like trying to add humor or strange elements to my photos purely to create interest for the viewer. I took it a step further for a bit of fun and made the subject headless, almost decapitated by the signage.”

Brooke Pyke’s gear and settings: Canon EOS R5 Mark II | Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L FISHEYE USM | 1/320 sec | f/9 | ISO 400

Brooke Pyke (Western Australia) rounded off the category winners with her dramatic black-and-white shot of a swirling mass of mobula rays, captured while on an ocean safari in Baja, Mexico.

“With marine life, you never know what you might see, and that’s part of the magic,” she told the competition organizers, also explaining that shooting over white sand enabled her to contrast the rays’ shapes against the “glowing backdrop.”

Each of this year’s Mono Award winners gained AU$2,500 (approximately $1,800 / £1,300) along with an 8TB Synology NAS storage. To see all of the 2026 commended frames as well as past winners, head to The Mono Awards website.