Sony World Photography Awards 2016
- Published
Iranian photojournalist Asghar Khamseh's series of portraits tackling the social issues around the violent act of acid throwing has won this year's L'Iris D'Or Sony World Photography Award. “The Jury were united in their admiration of the Photographer of the Year’s work and the light it sheds on the tragic practice it exposes," said Dominique Green, Chair, Documentary Jury.
Mohsen Mortazavi is a 34-year-old resident of Tehran. On the first day of work in 2012, a co-worker welcomed him with three litres of sulphuric acid, after mistakenly blaming him for a prank phone call. Chosen from the winners of the awards’ 14 Professional categories, Khamseh's winning work is titled Fire of Hatred.
The 2016 awards attracted a record-breaking 230,103 entries, with images submitted from 10 countries in seven Documentary and seven Art categories, as well as a youth, student and an open award. For the first time, two Professional categories have been won by one photographer in the same year. Kevin Frayer was the Environment winner for his series The Eagle Hunters of Western China.
Frayer also won the Professional People award with his series on the lives of Tibetan nomads in Yushu County, Qinghai, China.
Angelos Tzortzinis won the Professional Current Affairs category with a series documenting migration to Europe titled In Search of the European Dream.
Maroesjka Lavigne was awarded Landscape Photographer of the Year for the series Land of Nothingness which focused on the constantly changing vistas of the white saltpans and gold sand dunes of Nambia.
TransBrasil by Jetmir Idrizi, winner of the Professional Campaign award, is an ongoing project which aims to deepen gender identity issues from the documentary photography perspective and is also about the possibility of multiple identities.
Julien Mauve was awarded Conceptual Photographer of the Year for the series Greetings from Mars. The project is about space exploration and discovery.
Portraits of the silver medal winners just after losing their finals at the Zealand boxing Championships held in Copenhagen in March by Nikolai Linares, won first place in the Sport award.
The Professional Staged award went to Alberto Alicata for a project which traces the history of photography through the symbol of contemporary Western culture - Barbie.
Enchanted Bamboo Forest by Kei Nomiyama was selected as the single best image in the Open category. Nomiyama's photograph was shot in the mountains of Shikoku Island and captures the Luciola parvula firefly at the beginning of the rainy season.
Alexandre Meneghini from Brazil won the Open People Award for this image of two women swimming in the sea in Havana, Cuba.
The Open Wildlife Award went to Michaela Smidova, of the Czech Republic, for this shot a polar bear enjoying a bath.
The Youth Photographer of the Year title went to 18-year-old student Sam Delaware for a portrait of his sister. Born in Freeport, Maine, and currently attending school in Angwin, California, Delaware is a self-taught photographer who has been shooting since the age of 12.
RongRong & Inri, the influential photographic team who have shaped contemporary photography in China, have been awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Photography prize. All the winning and shortlisted images will be exhibited at Somerset House, London from 22 April – 8 May. All photos courtesy: Sony World Photography Award