Photographers | Craig Golding

Craig Golding commenced work at the Sydney Morning Herald in 1985. As with all photographers working for newspapers in Australia at that time, he covered all areas of photography in his job including news, sports and the arts. While he enjoyed the variety of work encountered as a press photographer, his real love, being an avid sports fan was sports photography.

Following his passion for music and using his skills developed from sports Photography – an ability to capture split second iconic images, Craig shot a series of memorable images at the Australian Made concert held at Thebarton oval, Adelaide on the 1st January 1987. Australian Made was a series of concerts held during 1986-87 that featured bands such as INXS, Jimmy Barnes, Models, The Saints and the Divinyls among other acts.

In 1989, Craig was sent to Melbourne to cover the Australian Open Tennis Championships. His picture of Martina Navratilova taken during this assignment was awarded first prize in the 1989 International Concours World Sports Photo Contest. He has been photographing sport full time for the Herald ever since both in Australia ?as well as at major International sporting events including the Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney and Athens Olympic Games.

Craig Golding has won over 30 International and more than 60 National awards for his Sports Photography including:

- Winner of the ?1998 World Press? Sports Portfolio Category.

- Winner of the 1998 B & W Portfolio, as well as taking out 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd prize in the B & W Singles of the I.O.C. International sports awards. The first time in the history of the awards that anyone had won an entire ?section.

- Winner of Australian Sports Photographer of the year in 1992, 1994 and 1995.

- Winner Australian Press Photographer of the year in 1994

- POYi 2000, (Pictures of the Year International) 2ND in the 2000 Olympic games category.

- Winner of the 2002 Sasakawa Sports Foundation world sports photo contest (gold prize)

- Winner of Sports Portfolio Category in the 2003 POYi (Pictures of the ?year International) Photo awards.

- Walkley Award 2007 (Australian National Press awards) Sports photographer of the year.

Craig’s photo essay on Surf lifesaving ‘Life’s a Beach’ has also picked up a number of International Awards including; Winner of the 2002 Feature picture story category in the POYi ?(Pictures of the year International Awards), Winner of the 2002 I.O.C. (International Olympic Committee), L’Équipe World sports photo contest for picture stories and 2^nd place in the 2002 World Press sports story category. ?These images are part of a decade’s worth of work, covering Australian surf lifesavers, published as Hardcover book ‘Surf Club’ in 2007.