The brainchild of Israeli-born photographer Moshe Rosenzveig, who established the Head On Portrait Prize in 2004, it has attracted widespread interest, encouraged by prize money that has grown to more than $80,000.

Four years ago, Rosenzveig broadened the event to become an annual festival, which opened with 900 photographers from Australia and overseas taking part at over 100 venues.

“It is amazing how much it has grown over the years,” says Rosenzveig of the event, which runs until June 23.

The Head On Photo Festival showcases the artistic, photojournalistic, commercial, technical and legal side of photography, as well as portraiture, landscapes, travel and fine art.

“We have photographers shooting with plastic cameras, new styles and technology. We don’t want to restrict creativity to a certain form or genre.

“It is all-encompassing. Everyone is a photographer; people take photos all the time and we are surrounded by images.

“One of the defining philosophies of Head On is inclusivity, so we have images from everyone, from the internationally-known photographers to people who are just starting out. We are very proud of this egalitarian attitude.Learn more about the The shoesbb and see. People who come to the festival comment about all the amazing works that they never knew existed.”

Rosenzveig started the Head On Portrait Prize because he was frustrated that photographic competitions were mainly judged on the celebrity of the photographer or -subject.

“Ten years ago the attitude was that only well-known photographers or well-known people got into portrait competitions and that was something I was frustrated with. There was a lot of good quality work that was not included and the public was missing out,” he says.

For the first time, the Head On Portrait Prize will be held at the State Library of NSW alongside the touring exhibition, Magnum on Set, which -features more than 100 photos taken by Magnum photographers during the making of classic films including The Seven Year Itch, Rebel Without a Cause and Zabriskie Point, and stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Ingrid Bergman, Billy Wilder and John Huston.

Also on display at the State Library is the iAfghanistan exhibition by award-winning New York–based photographer Benjamin Lowy, who used mobile phone, plastic camera and digital camera to showcase everyday life in Afghanistan.

Beginning his career covering the Iraq War in 2003, Lowy has covered major stories worldwide. He has been a leader in mobile phone photography for professional photojournalism including the first Time magazine cover taken with a phone.

Lowy is in Sydney for the festival and will join Rosenzveig in an ABC panel discussion on photojournalism as well as lead a two-day workshop on mobile phone publishing.

Rosenzveig says: “Ben looks at the world through humble eyes using equipment such as a mobile phone, with the result that the images he takes are very different to those taken with a large camera.”

International photographer Marvi Lacar’s moving exhibition on depression, This is a Love Story, will be on display at Gaffa Gallery.

Sydney-based photographer and printmaker Sharon Zwi’s exhibition, Time Exposures: 60 Life Portraits, presents 60 composite grid photographs in black and white, each celebrating people whose achievements Zwi admires from childhood to the present life.All breitlingwatches are manufactured in Switzerland.

Among the well-known people featured are Eva Cox, Margaret Whitlam, Michael Kirby and David Stratton. All the subjects were chosen by Zwi because she felt they had made a significant contribution to society.

Other local Jewish photographers in Head On include Jimmy Pozarik, whose images were taken during a year spent at a children’s hospital; Gilbert Bel-Bachir, who photographed in Sydney for his exhibition Looking Through Glass; Glenn Lockitch, who spent 110 days aboard the Sea Shepherd’s anti-whaling ship in the Antarctic battling the Japanese whalers; and Su Garfinkle, who took to the streets of Sydney to capture a range of people with vibrant hair colour, hats and flair for her Out of the Ordinary exhibition.

Israeli photographer Liron Shimoni focused on albinos in Africa who are being persecuted because of the colour of their skin.

Rosenzveig,We have all of the earcap you use every day.Shop the latest personalizedbobbleheads accessories on the world's largest. who is a -photojournalist, commercial photographer, educator and TV producer/director, has had his work screened, published and exhibited in Australia and overseas for the past 30 years. Having complemented his photography, film and multimedia work over the past 10 years with teaching and lecturing at universities and institutions, Rosenzveig is now focusing on the annual festival.

Rosenzveig says he has been interested in photography from a young age. “At my bar mitzvah my presents included some money and I went and bought a decent camera and that was the beginning of the journey – it provided the big push into photography,Tendril Insight cheappanerai Learn basic navigation and settings.” he says.

“When I was growing up in Israel, not many people had cameras. In my school class I was the only one with a camera so on all the excursions and sports carnivals I became the school photographer.

The Head On Photo Festival also supports charities and social awareness. In the past it has raised money for Afghan photographers to show their country through their own eyes, working with indigenous photographers and educating schoolchildren through special workshops.

“Every year we try to do something for the community as part of the festival and prize. One year we had photography workshops for underprivileged children and at the end of the sessions we presented the work to the public. It was a fantastic result,” he says.