Niall Hampton
Sony World Photography Awards
Sony Magazine takes you through the winning entries of 'photography's Oscars'
WITH ENTRANTS from 178 countries, they didn’t call it the Sony World Photography Awards for nothing. In April, a jury boasting some of the biggest names in photography from around the globe – including Tom Stoddart, Rankin and Martine Franck – jetted into Cannes to announce the winners at a glitzy ceremony in the Palais des Festivals, the home of the Cannes Film Festival. A total of 12,294 photographers entered their work, in 12 categories (11 for professionals and one for amateurs); awards were also given for the overall winner (L’Iris d’Or) and for lifetime achievement.
Organiser Scott Gray and main sponsor Sony want the SWPA to become photography’s Oscars, and this inaugural event certainly made the right start – ending on a high when legendary photographer Phil Stern received his lifetime achievement award to a five-minute standing ovation.
Enjoy Sony Magazine’s pick of the winners:
Abstract
Anita Cruz-Eberhard, United States
In an age when images of war are seldom out of the news, Cruz-Eberhard wondered if people had become desensitised to the effects of weapons. So she collected used shooting targets from a range in New York City and photographed them, asking the question, “Has war become just a pattern too?”
Architecture
Livia Corona, Mexico
In her collection Two Million Homes for Mexico, Corona photographed different aspects of home life in an attempt to explore the traditional notion of what “home” means. The images show how individuals adapt to living under the regulation of capitalism.
Fashion
Valeska Achenbach & Isabela Pacini, Germany and Brazil
Shying away from the ‘fashion photography’ tag, Achenbach and Pacini describe their work as “staged documentary photography”. Presumably, this means that although their photos look very polished, their settings are not. The judges were clearly impressed.
Portraiture
Vanessa Winship (and winner of L’Iris d’Or), United Kingdom
Winship spent four years living and working in Turkey, where she photographed a series of images called Sweet Nothings. Everywhere she travelled across the country, schoolgirls wore blue dresses with lace collars and embroidered bodices – symbols of the Turkish state.
Sport
Robin Utrecht, Netherlands
For his series of images called Soccer Team, Utrecht travelled to Sierra Leone in Africa to photograph a team of landmine victims playing football. Their passion and commitment comes across strongly in the photographs and clearly moved the judges.
Amateur
Arup Ghosh, India
An object lesson in how a simple trip to the barber can result in winning a top prize for your photography – Ghosh’s daughter wanted to see how a barber worked so he obligingly took her along, but then he spotted the barber hard at work and totally lost in the moment…
For more about the SWPA, and to see the winning images, visit www.worldphotographyawards.org
Story by Niall Hampton