I am Max
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PrizeSilver in Portraiture/Children
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PhotographerRob Palmer, Australia
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Date of PhotographJanuary 2025
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StudioRob Palmer Photography
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Website
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Instagram
Max is the son I always dreamed of, perfect in my eyes, though he struggles with societal gender expectations and because of this, at just 4, he described feeling like his body was “broken". Now 8, Max finds comfort with friends who accept him for who he is.
This Portrait captures the Max of today: a boy learning to be proud of the things he loves. Here he hangs out with after school in a laneway in the back streets of Bondi Beach surrounded by friends who care for him exactly as he is.
Rob’s photographic career began in the surf at Hawaii’s iconic Banzai Pipeline, where he developed the creativity, commitment and problem-solving skills that continue to shape his work today.
In 2020, Rob won the National Photographic Portrait Prize for his portrait of chef Josh Niland. Today, Rob works across lifestyle, food and advertising photography for clients including Audi, Qantas, Nestlé, Coles and Uber Eats. His work has appeared in publications including Harper’s Bazaar, Delicious Australia and Good Food, alongside books by many of Australia’s leading chefs and authors.
Awards • 2020 – Winner of National Photographic Portrait Prize.
• 2020 – Winner of the James Beard Book of the Year Award, ‘The
Whole Fish’.
• 2022 – Winner of the James Beard Book Award for Visual
Excellence, ‘Take One Fish’.
• 2014 – Winner of Australian Gourmand Awards for Best
Mediterranean Cookbook for “Colour of Maroc” (author and
Photographer).
• 2025 Finalist Olive Cotton Award.
• 2025 Australian Life Photographic Competition