Sony World Photography Awards announces winners

Spencer Murphy, who lives and works in London, was named Campaign Photographer of the Year for his series Channel 4 Racing – The Original Extreme Sport, which features portraits of jump jockeys post-race.

Guy Martin was awarded Current Affairs Photographer of the Year for Gezi Park, a project about protestors gathering to demonstrate against the construction of a mosque, mall and shopping district in Istanbul last year.

Amanda Harman was named Still Life Photographer of the Year for Garden Stories, Hidden Labours. The work focuses on the unseen and often unsung work of gardeners through a series of still life images.

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Photographers from 166 countries submitted almost 140,000 images in this year’s competition – the highest number of entries in the competition’s seven-year history.

The honorary jury – chaired by New York-based photography collector and curator WM Hunt – selected 14 category winners for the professional competition. Photographers were asked to submit up to 10 images per category and were judged on a body of work. The images must have been taken in 2013 or first published during that year.

The remaining 11 winners in the professional competition are: Architecture, Ludovic Maillard, France; Arts and Culture, Viviana Peretti, Italy; Conceptual, Thomas Brummett, US; Contemporary Issues, Sara Naomi Lewkowicz, US; Landscape, Roei Greenberg, Israel; Lifestyle, Myriam Meloni, Italy; Nature & Wildlife, Michael Nichols, US; People, Mario Wezel, Germany; Portraiture, Sophie Gamand, France; Sport, Salvatore Di Gregorio, Italy; and Travel, Ricardo Teles, Brazil.

China’s Chen Li was named Open Photographer of the Year, awarded to a non-professional photographer.

Student Focus Photographer of the Year went to the UK’s Scarlet Evans, while Paulina Metzscher from Germany was named Youth Photographer of the Year.

The L’Iris d’Or/Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year is Sara Naomi Lewkowicz from the US.

Astrid Merget, creative director at the World Photography Organisation, said: “Our jury has the task of finding bodies of work that leave a lasting impression, and this year’s winning photographers reveal insightful perspectives into a great variety of subjects. We are extremely pleased with the selection and are looking forward to working with these photographers throughout the coming year.”

The winning images, along with work by shortlisted photographers, will be on display at Somerset House in London until 18 May. The exhibition includes work by US photographer Mary Ellen Mark, recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award at this year’s awards. Also on show is work by William Klein and Panos Pictures photographers as part of Sony’s Global Imaging Ambassadors programme, a new initiative that seeks to unite some of the best photographers from around the world through special commissions from Sony.

The goal of the World Photography Organisation (WPO) is to support professional, amateur and young photographers by creating a global platform on which to showcase work from all photographic genres.

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