Two Australians have taken out top iStockphoto awards for excellence in photography.

Australian artist Anthony McGovern has won Design of the Year in the iStockphoto annual international Punctum Day awards, and photographer, Amanda Rohde, was inducted into the iStockphoto Hall of Fame.

Selected from over one million international photos, vector images, videos, Flash files and design submissions, the 50 finalists were decided by the millions of iStock community members and a panel of judges.

With only 10 winners in the Punctum Day awards, Anthony has achieved something remarkable. “It is a great honour to be nominated in the top 10 designs for the year and very humbling to be chosen as the best,” says McGovern.

“Having a royalty free creative community like iStock, where design, photography, illustration and video artists, and flash programmers, can go to show their work, is a vital resource to everyone,” he says.

Self-taught Amanda Rohde, known as ‘Hidesy’ online, is a leading iStock photographer, with her images being downloaded more than 400,000 times. Her work has been used extensively all over the world.

iStockphoto is a royalty-free photo-sharing site with over three and a half million members. ‘Punctum’ refers to the profound feeling you get when you see an excellent image. Introduced in 2007, Punctum Day is a day to celebrate creative excellence.

www.istockphoto.com