Chinese photographer Chen Li named Open Photographer of the Year at 2014 Sony World Photography Awards

Chinese amateur photographer Chen Li is tonight awarded the Open Photographer of the Year at the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards - one of the most prestigious awards programmes in the photographic industry.

Chen Li’s winning image, ‘Rain in an ancient town’, was selected from over 65,000 entries from across the world - in a competition that sought to find the world’s single best image taken by an amateur photographer or photography enthusiast. Chen Li was flown to London by the World Photography Organisation and presented with his award at a gala ceremony attended by the elite of the photography industry.

Chen Li, who lives in Fenghuang County, Hunan Province, has been a keen amateur photographer for over 30 years. Talking about his win, Chen Li comments; “I’m surprised to receive such an honour, and it has simultaneously put pressure on me! I sincerely hope I can take better pictures with Sony cameras in the future as my appreciation.”

Li’s image was announced as the winner of the Travel category of the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards Open competition on 18 March. Nine other category winners were announced on this date and the overall winner for the Open Photographer of the Year title was chosen from these ten photographers. Each of the ten category winners received a Sony a6000 camera.

Presiding Chair of Judges, Nigel Atherton, supervised the judging of the Open competition. Atherton comments “Photography is a language that transcends national borders and cultures, race, gender and social background. Its poetry touches the hearts and minds of people all over the world, and nowhere is this better demonstrated than in these awards. No two of this year’s Open category winners are from the same country, but all share the ability to visually interpret the world around them in a unique and captivating way. The winning and shortlisted images demonstrate this gift with aplomb.”

Chen Li’s winning image will be shown as part of the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition at the famous Somerset House in London from 1 – 18 May. It will also be published in the 2014 edition of the annual Sony World Photography Awards book.

To see all winning images from the awards please go to worldphoto.org

For tickets to the exhibition, further information and images please contact:

Kristine Bjørge, PR Manager, World Photography Organisation

+44 (0) 20 7886 3146/ + 44 (0) 7557 261 537 / kristine@worldphoto.org

Notes to editors:

• Winning images are available to download via press.worldphoto.org and Image.net
• To register a press account go to: press.worldphoto.org/register
  
  
• Interviews with photographers and judges are available via the World Photography Organisation

• 139,554 images were entered in total to the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards: 69,114 Professional entries; 65,512 Open entries and 4,928 Youth entries images

• Photographers entering the Open competition were judged on a single image. The competition was open to all amateur photographers and photography enthusiasts. All images must have been taken in 2013.

• The ten category winners of the Open competition are:

• Architecture – Holger Schmidtke, Germany
• Arts and Culture – Valerie Prudon, Australia
• Enhanced – Kylli Sparre, Estonia
• Low Light - Vlad Eftenie, Romania
• Nature & Wildlife – Gert van den Bosch, Netherlands
• Panoramic – Ivan Pedretti, Italy
• People - Arup Ghosh, India
• Smile - Alpay Erdem, Turkey
• Split Second - Hairul Azizi Harun, Malaysia
• Travel – Chen Li, China

• Other winners announced at the Sony World Photography Awards Gala Ceremony include:
  • L’Iris d’Or/ Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year - Sara Naomi Lewkowicz, US

• Student Focus Photographer of the Year – Scarlet Evans, UK
• Youth Photographer of the Year – Paulina Metzscher, Germany

• The 14 Professional category winners announced at the awards are:
• Architecture – Ludovic Maillard, France
• Arts and Culture – Viviana Peretti, Italy
• Campaign – Spencer Murphy, UK
• Conceptual – Thomas Brummett, US
• Contemporary Issues – Sara Naomi Lewkowicz, US
• Current Affairs – Guy Martin, UK
• Landscape – Roei Greenberg, Israel
• Lifestyle – Myriam Meloni, Italy
• Nature & Wildlife – Michael Nichols, US
• People – Mario Wezel, Germany
• Portraiture – Sophie Gamand, France
• Sport – Salvatore Di Gregorio, Italy
• Still Life – Amanda Harman, UK
• Travel – Ricardo Teles, Brazil