The Sony World Photography Awards are a photography competition with categories ranging from ‘Smile’ to ‘Travel’ to ‘Architecture’. The shortlists have been announced and from these I have chosen my Top5. The competition is split between Professional, Open and Youth. In most cases the Open category is more interesting.
5
Wolfgang Weinhardt
‘Samsara’
Germany
Open-Travel
© Wolfgang Weinhardt, 2014 Sony World Photography Awards
This image, taken last year, shows pilgrims crossing the River Ganga to attend the 12-yearly Hindu gathering Maha Kumbh Mela. I love the scale and parallel bridges fading into the background. It has an almost military feel emphasised by the greys.
4
Yong Sheng-Zheng
‘191163-662436’
China
Professional – Sport
© Yong Sheng-Zheng, 2014 Sony World Photography Awards
Neglecting to even come up with a name for this action packed shot. What appears on first glance to be a farmhand struggling for control is unfortunatly a sport. Spectators line the backdrop.
3
Bonnie Cheung
‘Jump of Life’
Hong Kong
Open – Nature & Wildlife
© Bonnie Cheung, 2014 Sony World Photography Awards
Bonnie Cheung has managed to capture this dramatic scene of wildebeest migrating. The dust clouds and splashing water fill the scene with green-browns with light bursting through. This is a spectacle I’d love to see for real.
2
Persefoni Balkon
‘Silk Lines’
Greece
© Bonnie Cheung, Sony World Photography Awards
This image was actually entered into an earlier competition but I was really drawn to it for the composition. The colours, strokes and ensemble of ballerinas create a Monet-Degas-esque impressionist feel.
1
Richard Garvey Williams
‘Giraffes’
United Kingdom
© Wolfgang Weinhardt, 2014 Sony World Photography Awards
Perhaps it’s a love of nature that has lead me to choose this as my top choice, I could have easily chosen all my Top5 from the Nature and Wildlife category if I wasn’t so restrained. These silhouettes of three giraffes behind a tree make a fantastic, loud statement. By managing to capture just three shades of grey the image is really powerful and I’m rooting for this to win an award.
Below is a gallery of a few more of my favourites. You can see all the entrants on Sony’s website, unfortunately it is poorly built and the pleasure obtained from the photographs may be outweighed by your frustration however.
You can follow me here on WordPress or on Facebook (I’ll link to the winners on Facebook when they’re announced). Checkout the rest of my posts using the categories on the left.
