Sony World Photography Awards 2011 Shortlist announced
The shortlist for the 2011 Sony World Photography Awards is announced, Tuesday 1 February. With a Professional competition spanning the three genres of Photojournalism & Documentary, Fine Art and Commercial, and an Open competition for photographers of all abilities, the Sony World Photography Awards is the most comprehensive photographic competition in the world today.
The shortlist for this year’s Professional competition was selected by the Honorary Judging Committee, comprising world-renowned figures from the international photographic industry including photographers, picture editors, agents and critics. The jury, who came together in London to make their selection, was chaired by the British photography critic Francis Hodgson. The winners will be announced on 27 April.
The 2011 competition has attracted more submissions than ever before, reaching all corners of the globe, with over 105,000 entries from 162 counties. The shortlist includes a number of winners and finalists from previous years including Amit Madheshiya, Peter Frank, Denis Rouvre , Giulio Di Sturco and Tommaso Bonaventura.
Astrid Merget, Creative Director of the World Photography Organisation commented on the Professional award selections: “This has been an extraordinary year for the competition. With the highest number of entries since the awards were founded, we are clearly reaching a vast international community of photographers. Even so, the honorary jury continues to push the level of quality accepted into the shortlist extremely high, selecting only the best. All within the shortlist should certainly be very pleased with their accomplishment.”
Francis Hodgson, Chair of the Honorary Judging Committee, added: “It is remarkable that a suite of awards with such a broad reach produces imagery of such quality, but it does. Submissions came from across the photographic spectrum, and it was obvious that the judging panel would meet a great deal of variety. But we met vigour, too, and that was perhaps less to be expected. It is pleasing to be able to report that the photography we saw was not only made with great photographic skill; it showed great communication skills as well, and that, surely, when all is said and done, is the point.”
In the Professional competition there are 15 categories within the three subject genres: Photojournalism & Documentary (Current Affairs, Contemporary Issues, People, Arts & Culture and Sport); Commercial (Campaign, Travel, Lifestyle, Still Life and Fashion) and Fine Art (Architecture, Portraiture, Landscape, Still Life and Conceptual).
There are ten categories in the Open competition for anyone with an interest in photography. They are: Action, After Dark, Architecture, Arts & Culture, Fashion, Nature & Wildlife, Panoramic, People, Smile and Travel. This year the Open entries were judged by a pre-selection committee of inspectors from iStockphoto. The category winners and the overall Sony World Photography Awards Open Photographer of the Year will be chosen by the final selection jury comprising Francis Hodgson, Andrew Saunders, Vice President, Creative Imagery, Getty Images; Joseph Jean Rolland Dubé, Vice President, Content Development, iStockphoto; Yann Salmon-Legagneur (Sony Europe Marketing -DSLR) and Paul Genge (Sony UK Technical Marketing - DSLR).
Of the Open competition, Joseph Jean Rolland Dubé, comments: “This is iStock's third year in reviewing these open entries. The competition is getting more fierce every year and the best images are the epitome of creativity and skill. Congrats to the World Photography Organiation for compelling such amazing entries... and let there be such a venue dedicated to raw talent for years to come.”
The Sony World Photography Awards winners will be showcased as part of the World Photography Festival and Exhibitions at Somerset House in London. With an emphasis on creating a social networking and meeting place for photographers, the festival programme, which runs from 26 April to 1 May, promises an eclectic mix of talks, screenings, portfolio reviews, peer critiques and workshops, led by many of our internationally renowned Academy Members. The Sony World Photography Awards winners’ exhibition will stay open until 22 May 2011. Tickets to the festival and exhibition are available via www.worldphoto.org from 4 February 2011.
The winners of the Professional categories will be announced on Thursday 27 April at the Sony World Photography Awards ceremony. For the first time this will be held at the Odeon Leicester Square in London having been in Cannes, France in previous years. Also on the night, the winner of the coveted L’Iris D’Or / Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year, will be announced. They will receive $25,000 and professional Sony camera equipment. The overall winner of the Open competition will receive a $5,000 cash prize as well as Sony camera equipment. The final presentation of the night will be in honour of the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography.
A number of tickets to the Sony World Photography Awards ceremony will be available to the public. Tickets, starting at £22, are available via www.worldphoto.org from 4 February.
