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Photography Competition – Sony World Photography Awards – Open for Entries

The Sony World Photography Awards is the world’s biggest photography competition and its aim is simple: to recognise and reward the best contemporary photography in the world.

The awards have brought untold reward and recognition to those involved and each year offers an incredible $30,000 (USD) in cash prizes plus the latest Sony digital imaging equipment.

Free to enter, photographers of all abilities are invited to submit either their best single shots or series of work.  The images are judged by the World Photography Organisation and a specially selected jury from the World Photographic Academy which is made up on the photographic industry’s most esteemed individuals.  

The awards offer an unparalleled opportunity for exposure for photographers at all stages of their career and are known worldwide by industry leaders.

The annual awards gala and ceremony takes place in London, welcoming an international attendance of industry leaders to celebrate the recognition of the best in contemporary photography and each year also pays tribute to one of our masters with the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award. Supporting the celebration is an exhibition of the winners and shortlist, comprising of hundreds of photographs expertly curated inside the historic London landmark, Somerset House.

To enter, go here

The Competitions

The Sony World Photography Awards has five competitions:

Professional – 15 categories, judged on a series of images, aimed at serious photographers

Open – 10 categories, judged on a single image, open to all

Youth – 3 categories, for photographers aged 12-19

Student Focus – for those studying photography

National Award – finding the best single image taken by a local photographer in over 50 countries

The awards offer categories across all genres of photojournalism, fine art and commercial photography.  The categories include: current affairs; nature & wildlife; arts & culture, portraiture; contemporary issues; sport; landscape; still life; lifestyle; architecture, and more.

The 2015 edition attracted over 173,000 entries from 171 countries and winners will be announced on 23 April.  In addition to cash prizes for the overall Professional and Open Photographers of the Year, category winners also receive the latest digital imaging equipment from Sony and Sony Mobile.

Exposure and Benefits

Exposure is given to not only the winning but also the shortlisted photographers.  

Recognised photographers can receive:

Exhibition at Somerset House, London

Potential to be included in international exhibitions

Inclusion in the Sony World Photography Awards book

Potential to work with Sony on a variety of digital imaging projects

Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: [email protected]