Shaz Spannenburg is an award-winning artist based in Cairns, North Queensland.
Using cameras as her medium, Shaz has photographed commercially, weddings, and portraiture since year 2000. In retirement from this, Shaz now focuses on more creative art and landscapes.
The creative art takes the form of composites, an ongoing project since 2020, that involves decluttering architectural elements and transporting them to new unexpected environments. The landscapes include traditional ground imagery as well as aerial abstract work, captured by either drones, planes or helicopters.
North Queensland offers a variety of landscapes and google earth analysis leads to finding a project area to investigate from the air, looking for interesting abstract patterns and textures that we only see from this “top down” perspective.
Awards and Exhibitions
Awards
2020 Bluethumb Art: photography category finalist
2021 Bluethumb Art: photography category finalist
2022 Bluethumb Art Awards: digital category winner
2023 Galah Regional Photographic Prize: finalist
2023 Zephyr Photographic Awards: finalist
2023 The Capture Awards: Top 10 finalist
2024 The Capture Awards:
Highly Commended x2
Finalist x2
Top 15 x2
2024 Fairholme Art Prize: finalist
2025 The Landscape Awards: Highly Commended x 2
2025 APP (Australian Photographic Prize):
2x Highly Commended
Architecture Category: Second
Gold with Distinction Award
Exhibitions
2019 “Skyflowers” Tanks Arts Centre, Cairns, QLD
2021 “Un-Scenes” Vivo, Palm Cove, QLD
2022 FNQ Contemporaries, Cairns Art Gallery, QLD
Artist collaboration of composites, Atherton Art Gallery, QLD
2023 Finalist Exhibit: Galah Regional Photographic Prize, Murwillumbah, NZW
2024 Finalist Exhibit: Fairholme Awards, Toowoomba, QLD
2025 Cairns Festival 2025 “Aerials of the Burdekin Wetlands” projection exhibition