Asanka Brendon Ratnayake, A Long Way to the Top (DOCUMENTARY & STREET 2026)

From the stage at Federation Square, I photographed 374 bagpipers packed tightly together as they played AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ’n’ Roll)” to set a new world record. I chose a compressed, layered composition to turn the massed ensemble into a wall of pipes and faces. The repeated black drones create a visual rhythm across the frame, while the piper in the bearskin hat provides a central anchor amid the chaos. The photograph seeks to translate the scale, sound and eccentricity of the event into a single frame, documenting a distinctly Melbourne collision of Scottish tradition, Australian rock history and public spectacle.

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