Grand Prize Winners Announced at 2015 Sony World Photography awards,
The Honorary Jury of the world’s largest photography competition today names American photographer John Moore as the 2015 Sony World Photography Awards’ L’Iris d’Or/ Professional Photographer of the Year, amongst other awardees.
Chosen from the winners of the awards’ thirteen professional categories, the winning work “Ebola Crisis Overwhelms Liberian Capital” is a hard-hitting series of images that cut to the heart of this human tragedy. Moore, a Senior Staff Photographer and Special Correspondent for Getty Images, and the winning photographs have been universally credited for the early exposure of the scale of the Ebola epidemic in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia and the epicentre of the deadly disease. He collects $25,000 USD as his prize.
The L’Iris d’Or Photgrapher of the Year 2015
©John Moore, United States, 2015
Professional category winners
The winners of thirteen Professional categories were also announced today. From across the world and covering a range of topics, the winning works each showcase the very best contemporary photography in their genre. The winners are:
- Architecture- Winner – Cosmin Bumbuț, Romania
- Arts & Culture- Winner – Aristide Economopoulos, United States
- Campaign- Winner – Sebastian Gil Miranda, France (lives in Argentina)
- Conceptual- Rahul Talukder, Bangladesh
- Contemporary Issues – Scott Typaldos, Switzerland
- Current Affairs- John Moore, United States
- Landscape- Simon Norfolk, United Kingdom
- Lifestyle – Li Fan China
- People- Giovanni Troilo, Italy
- Portraiture- Rubén Salgado Escudero, Spain (lives in Myanmar)
- Sport – Riccardo Bononi, Italy
- Still Life- Donald Weber, Canada
- Travel – Bernhard Lang, Germany
Open Photographer of the Year
Amateur German photographer Armin Appel was named the overall Open Photographer of the Year and received $5,000 for his image “Schoolyard”. 79,264 images were entered to the Open competition.
Youth Photographer of the Year
Nineteen-year-old student Yong Lin Tan from Malaysia was awarded this title. Open to photographers aged 19 and under and judged on a single shot, the atmospheric winning image was taken in the back alley of the photographer’s grandmother’s house in Kedah, Malaysia. 6,675 entries were received to the Youth competition in total.
Student Photographer of the Year
Russian photographer Svetlana Blagodareva from Saint Petersburg State Polytechnic University beat nine other shortlisted students from around the world to collect this award. Her prize is €35,000 worth of Sony photography equipment for her university.
Outstanding Contribution to Photography – Elliott Erwitt
Renowned Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt was honoured at the awards with the Outstanding Contribution to Photography prize. An intimate show celebrating a combination of Erwitt’s most familiar and lesser known work from across his 60 year career will be presented at Somerset House, London as part of the Sony World photography Awards exhibition.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter is a British photography journalist, editor, curator, and the founder of *TheAppWhisperer.com*, one of the world’s leading platforms dedicated to mobile photography and art. Since its launch in 2009, TheAppWhisperer has become an international hub for artists of all levels to discover, learn, exhibit, and engage with contemporary photographic practice.Built on principles of inclusivity, accessibility, and artistic excellence, Joanne has spent almost two decades championing mobile photography as a serious artistic medium. Through interviews, critical essays, exhibitions, competitions, and education, she has helped shape and document the evolution of mobile art on a global scale.Her work has taken her internationally, lecturing on photography and mobile art at institutions and events including the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea, alongside appearances in the UK and Europe. She has served as a juror for international photography and mobile art awards across Portugal, Canada, the United States, South Korea, Italy, and the UK.Joanne is also the founder of *TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com*, one of the first online galleries dedicated exclusively to collectible mobile art, connecting artists with collectors across Europe, the United States, and Asia.Before founding TheAppWhisperer, Joanne worked extensively in print journalism and photographic publishing, including roles at a paparazzi photo agency and as deputy editor of a leading photography magazine. Her freelance journalism, criticism, and commentary have been published widely in both the UK and the US, with bylines in *The Times*, *The Sunday Times*, *The Guardian*, *Popular Photography*, *NikonPro*, *DPReview*, *Which?*, *Vogue Italia*, *LensCulture*, the *BBC*, and more recently, the *Financial Times*, where her published letters on photography continue to contribute to wider conversations around the medium.Alongside her editorial and curatorial work, Joanne’s own photographic practice has been exhibited internationally across the UK, Europe, South Korea, and the United States. Her work increasingly explores themes of grief, loss, death, memory, and the body.Her current research interests centre on grief, death, and poverty, with forthcoming postgraduate study leading towards doctoral research in these areas.Joanne is currently developing new long-form writing and photographic projects and is available for commissions, editorial projects, speaking engagements, and collaborations.Contact: joannetheappwhisperer@gmail.com)
