Photography - News Photography - Winner

Eddie Safarik, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, "Haneef Leaves the Watchhouse"

On July 18, after a week of fruitless shifts following detained terror suspect Dr Mohamed Haneef around Brisbane, Eddie Safarik suddenly found himself with mere seconds to get a shot. He sprinted 50 metres to catch up to Haneef’s security van at a stop sign, then shot blindly into its heavily tinted windows until his eyes adjusted.

The resulting image is equal parts luck and dogged determination, but all humanity.

The image embodied all the controversy of the story, particularly the sense of powerlessness in the face of the authorities, and went on to be reused nationally and internationally.

Freelance photographer Safarik grew up on the Gold Coast. His first news photography position was with The Examiner in Launceston; in December 1999 he moved to The Mercury newspaper in Hobart until September 2004.

Safarik returned to south-east Queensland to freelance for three months before working for The Australian in Cairns for two years. He moved to Brisbane in July 2007.

This year Safarik won best news photograph at the Queensland Media Awards. He also won the Tasmanian Media Awards’ Keith Welsh Award for outstanding contribution to journalism.

Judges’ comments

Safarik showed incredible technical skill to get the shot everyone wanted. The image is in extraordinary focus considering it was taken with a hand-held flash, on the run, with literally seconds to get the shot. As the standout image for the year, it’s hard to go past. It’s an iconic shot of a story that’s like Australia’s Abu Ghraib. And it’s a great ad for the locksmith.