Photos: Cole Ferguson

Best night everrrrrrrrrrrrrr (part dos).

If you weren’t at 2-3 Fair in Santa Monica last weekend, you were nowhere, maaaaaan. We had our annual Photo Annual launch (issue 71, on sale HERE)—aaaand we had an exhibition featuring the photographic work of all the winners and runners-up. We also had booze from our friends at Slow & Low, 805 Brewing, and Telago. Lots of booze. Probably too much, if we’re honest. But it was an amazing night, and we even had Reverberation Radio on the ones and twos. Also, some finalists and winners came through to see their work printed on very expensive, premium foam core like they do at high-end galleries. No frames, because we're DIY like that over here.

Shout-out to Music category runner-up Kealan Shilling who made it out and looked smashing as always to shake babies and kiss hands, and also the Lifestyle Category winner, Melissah Shahparnia, who came all the way out even though she's pregnant! Great to see you guys and congrats on being really good photographers.

The knucklehead who planned the event was supposed to throw to Melissah for a victory speech, but the knucklehead didn’t because he’s a knucklehead. Here’s what Melissah would have said:

I’ve been entering this photo competition every year for over a decade, but have never made final before. And each time, I always say fuck these fuckers and their motherfucking photo competition. I’m never entering this thing again (pause for laughter). But then the next year will roll around, and it’s such an epic photo competition, I can’t resist giving it a shot. This year I scrolled through all the other entries and really enjoyed checking out some unique images from some of my favorite photographers, and was also blown away by so many epic photos from photographers I’ve never heard of. The quality of work this year was amazing, and I’m honored to take the win. Thank you to Monster Children for not only running the best photo competition but also for doing such an amazing job of keeping print alive. The new photo annual looks unreal! And thank you to Sun Bum for supporting the Lifestyle category.

Cheers!

-Melissah

Isn’t that nice? Imagine if she'd got to say it in person (sorry). So, congratulations, Melissah, and congrats to all the winners and runners-up. Special thanks to the category sponsors: G-Shock, Boost Mobile, Roark, Herschel, Slow & Low, and Sun Bum, and our friends at 2-3 Fair for hosting us. And thanks again to everyone who showed up, grabbed a mag, viewed the exhibition, and closed out our year on an absolute high note. See ya in 2023!

*EDITOR'S NOTE: We basically copied the article from the Sydney launch party verbatim because we're still hungover. So what. If it works, it works.