Jason Zhang, The Shape of Time (ANIMALS 2026)

Taken on an autumn afternoon at Wentworth Falls Lake in the Blue Mountains, this image combines two photographs of the same bird made moments apart. What interested me was not the bird itself, but the trace of movement it left behind. By layering two moments into a single frame, the image becomes less about wildlife and more about the passage of time. The bird appears both present and absent, solid and fading, as if memory and reality briefly occupy the same space. Water records nothing, yet it reflects everything. The ripples disappear almost as soon as they are formed, leaving only a suggestion that something has passed through. Perhaps time is much the same.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.