The 2014 Sony World Photography Awards, organized by the World Photography Organization, is now open for entries. Professional, amateur, youth and student photographers from across the world can enter their best work for free at www.worldphoto.org. Photographers will compete for a range of cash prizes and the latest digital imaging equipment from Sony. Overall winners will be announced in London on 30 April 2014.
Coinciding with the opening of the awards, the World Photography Organization (WPO) has also launched a new online magazine. Available to read for free at worldphoto.org/magazine each month the WPO magazine will center on one key topic affecting the photography industry. It will include interviews, discussions and interactive webinars on this topic and will feature experts drawn from the World Photographic Academy and the wider photography industry.
The theme of the inaugural June edition is photographic awards: features include the importance of editing your work, a round-up of the top awards to enter and the culture of entering awards. The magazine will also feature interviews with the winning and shortlisted photographers of the Sony World Photography Awards; the June edition opens with 2013 L’Iris d’Or/ Photographer of the Year, Andrea Gjestvang.
Future themes include collecting photography, how technology is changing photography and photojournalism. The magazine will also include video interviews, edited versions of which can also be seen on WPO’s new dedicated YouTube channel at youtube.com/worldphotoorg
2014 Sony World Photography Awards
Since its launch in 2007, over 555,000 images from 230 countries have been submitted to the Sony World Photography Awards. Seeking the very best in international contemporary photography, the awards have established themselves as one of the world’s leading photography competitions. The most recent winner of the L’Iris d’Or/ Photographer of the Year title is Norwegian photographer Andrea Gjestvang for a powerful series of portraits of children and youths who survived the July 2011 massacre on the island of Utøya, outside Oslo.
The winner of the 2014 L’Iris d’Or/Photographer of the Year title will be presented with $25,000 (USD) and the Open Photographer of the Year will receive $5,000 (USD). All category winners will receive the latest digital imaging equipment from Sony and the Student Focus winner will receive a range of new, cutting edge Sony equipment for their university. Winning and shortlisted photographs will also be published in the 2014 edition of the Sony World Photography Awards book and exhibited at Somerset House, London.
The 2014 Sony World Photography Awards include the following competitions:
• Professional – 15 categories judged on a series of work
• Open – 10 categories judged on a single image
• Youth – three categories for photographers under 20
• Student Focus – for higher education photography students aged 18-30
The Open and Youth competition will close for entries at 23.59 GMT on Monday 6 January 2014 with the exception of the Professional competition, which will close at 23.59 GMT on Thursday 9 January 2014. A list of categories can be found in the notes to editors.
The brief for the Student Focus competition is to shoot a single image for the front page of a newspaper. The image can be sensationalist or low-key but it must make the viewer want to learn more and draw attention to an issue that has meaning for the photographer. Entries to the Student Focus competition close on 6 December 2013.
The key dates for the 2014 awards are:
• 6 December – Student Focus competition closes
• 6 January – Open and Youth competition close
• 9 January – Professional competition closes
• 4 February – shortlist for Professional, Open and Youth competitions revealed
• 18 February – Student Focus shortlist announced
• 18 March – Open and Youth winners revealed
• 31 March – Outstanding Contribution to Photography recipient announced
• 30 April – L’Iris d’Or/Photographer of the Year plus Professional category winners and Open, Youth and Student Focus Photographers of the Year revealed at gala awards ceremony held in London
• 1-18 May– 2014 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition at Somerset House, London
Further details about the Sony World Photography Awards and the World Photography Organization can be found at www.worldphoto.org
For all press enquiries please contact:
Jill Cotton at World Photography Organization
+44 (0) 20 7886 3049/ + 44 (0)7557 261 537 / jill@worldphoto.org