​Shortlist for 2018 Sony World Photography Awards reveals outstanding quality, variety and record entry figures

Today's announcement signals an impressive year ahead for the world's most diverse international photography competition

●All shortlisted images available at worldphoto.org/press

●Nearly 320,000 images were submitted from across the world, seeing a 140% increase in entries compared to 2017.

●Overall winners will be revealed on April 19 2018 (23.00 GMT) and a specially curated exhibition will take place April 20 – May 6 at Somerset House, London.

FEBRUARY 28, 2018: The shortlisted and commended photographers for the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards, the world’s most diverse photography competition, are announced today.

Photographers from over 200 countries and territories entered nearly 320,000 images across the Awards’ competitions, the highest ever number of entries to date and a 140% increase on 2017. The judges were particularly impressed with the high quality of entries, and the shortlist's ability to offer insight into the foremost trends and contemporary concerns of photographers working today.

Produced by the World Photography Organisation, the Sony World Photography Awards are now in the 11th year of partnership with their headline sponsor, Sony. The Awards’ shortlist (top 10 per category) and commended list (top 50 per category) comprises some of the world’s finest contemporary photography captured over the past year.

The international range of entries display a huge diversity of imagery in terms of genre, style and subject matter across the Awards’ 4 competitions: Professional, Open, Youth and Student Focus. The Professional competition includes 10 categories such as Architecture, Contemporary Issues, Landscape, Natural World & Wildlife, Portraiture and two new categories for this year; Creative and Discovery, while the Open competition offers 10 categories including Culture, Enhanced, Motion, Street Photography and Travel.

This year, the Professional competition, which is judged on a series of works, saw an impressive number of entries across its 10 categories. Judges found submissions to be exceptionally strong, particularly across the competition's two new categories - Creative and Discovery. The shortlisted series of works include stylish images of humanity’s obsession with wealth to raw images of the Rohingya refugee crisis, through to quirky portraits of dogs and their owners. The photographers will now compete to win their categories, and Photographer of the Year title.

The Open competition, which is judged on a single image, also saw a wide variety of subject matter submitted to its 10 categories, with Street Photography and Landscape and Nature receiving the highest volume of entries. Shortlisted works include beautiful imagery of frozen lakes, sunlit deserts and hidden forests; stunning portraits of faces from around the world, and unique insights in cultures and traditions that might otherwise be unseen. A breadth of Open competition images were awarded ‘Commended’ as some of the top 50 works within their categories, ranging from images of industrial power stations and formations of swans, to an evocative image of para-athletes competing in the rain.

All the shortlisted Professional and Open photographers’ works will go on to compete to become category winners, with the chance of being selected as Photographer of the Year winning $25,000 (USD) or Open Photographer of the Year winning$5,000 (USD).

The Awards’ Youth competition saw a diverse range of entries from 12-19 year old photographers who submitted one image on the theme of ‘my environment’, with nearly 8000 more entries submitted compared to the previous year.

Finally, the Student Focus competition saw applications from universities worldwide. Ten shortlisted students from the UK, India, France, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Canada and China will now go on to produce a further body of work, with the chance of winning €30,000 (Euros) of Sony digital imaging equipment for their university.

The winners of the Awards will be announced at the Awards ceremony in London on April 19.The Photographer of the Year, Open Photographer of the Year, the Professional and Youth competitions’ category winners and the ten shortlisted Student Focus entrants will all be flown to London to attend. Category winners will also receive the latest Sony digital imaging equipment and will be included in the 2018 Awards' book.

The Sony World Photography Awards are judged anonymously by internationally acclaimed industry professionals. The 2018 Professional competition jury was chaired by Mike Trow (ex Picture Editor, British Vogue) with representatives from international museums, publishing and the media.

Philip Tinari (Judge and Director, Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, China)commented:

"We were impressed by the depth and diversity of the work that we reviewed, and inspired by the many ways in which photographers around the world are engaging with the issues that face us all."

Naomi Cass (Judge and Director, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia) remarked: “The range of work considered was breathtaking, and diversity amongst the judges ensured robust discussions, leading to outstanding winners. I was impressed by the diversity of approaches within each category and the breadth of photographers from across the globe.”

Clare Grafik (Judge and Head of Exhibitions, The Photographers' Gallery, London, UK) commented: "From new approaches to portraiture to creative responses to the landscape in which we live, the images illustrated what a broad and innovative field photography has become. As our way of experiencing photographic images becomes all the more multifarious, the Awards offer us the opportunity to focus on new talents and important projects that may otherwise have passed us by.”

Commenting on this year’s awards, Scott Gray (CEO, World Photography Organisation) notes: “The quality of this year’s submissions has been very impressive, with outstanding works of art entered across the competitions. The Sony World Photography Awards has celebrated photographers and photography throughout its 11-year history, and we continue to work to ensure photography is recognised as a dynamic, exciting, and accessible medium.”

All shortlisted and winning images will be exhibited as part of the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition at Somerset House, London. This exhibition will include a dedicated section featuring specially selected works by the 2018 recipient of theOutstanding Contribution to Photography prize (to be announced March 13). The exhibition will run from April 20 until May 6. Tickets are available at www.worldphoto.org/2018exhibition

For further information please contact:

Jill Cotton/Emma Double, World Photography Organisation
press@worldphoto.org / +44 (0) 20 7886 3043 / 3049

Notes to Editors

Further press information and all shortlisted and commended images are available to download for publication at www.worldphoto.org/press
The 2018 Awards received 319, 561 entries from 201 countries and territories across its 4 competitions, which is 140% higher than the 2017 Awards (227,596 entries).

The Professional competition of the Sony World Photography Awards is judged by an independent panel of industry experts selected by the World Photography Organisation. The headline sponsor of the awards, Sony, is not involved in the image selection of judging of this competition.

About World Photography Organisation
The World Photography Organisation is a global platform for photography initiatives. Working across more than 180 countries, our aim is to raise the level of conversation around photography by celebrating the best imagery and photographers on the planet. We pride ourselves on building lasting relationships with both individual photographers as well as our industry-leading partners around the world. The World Photography Organisation hosts a year-round portfolio of events including the Sony World Photography Awards, one of the world’s leading photography competitions, and PHOTOFAIRS, international art fairs dedicated to photography with destinations in Shanghai and San Francisco. For more details see www.worldphoto.org.

2018 Sony World Photography Awards
SHORTLISTED PHOTOGRAPHERS

PROFESSIONAL CATEGORIES

Rewarding the best body of work across 10 categories. Up to 10 photographers shortlisted in each category. Category winners will be announced April 19, alongside the Photographer of the Year chosen from the ten category winners.

Architecture

• Gianmaria Gava, Italian

●Corentin Fohlen, French

●Loïc Vendrame, French

●Matteo Canestraro, Italian

●Anastasia Riakovskaia, Russian

●Mikhail Zamkovskiy, Russian

●Edgar Martins, Portuguese

●Brett Leigh Dicks, American

Creative

●Daren You, Chinese

●Jakob Schnetz, German

●Patricia Kühfuss, German

●Eduardo Castaldo, Italian

●Florian Ruiz, French

●Tania Franco Klein, Mexican

●Llewellyn Berry, American

Contemporary Issues

●Stefano Morelli, Italian

●Claudia Gori, Italian

●Chloe Jafe, French

●Fred Lerneryd, Swedish

●Ana Belén Amado, Spanish

●Alfio Tommasini, Swiss

●Margaret Mitchell, British

●Lauren Greenfield, American

●Sebastian Meyer, American

●

Current Affairs & News

●Probal Rashid, Bangladeshi

●Kevin Frayer, Canadian

●Luis Henry Agudelo Cano, Colombian

●Rasmus Flindt Pedersen, Danish

●Samsul Said, Malaysian

●Asha Miles, Russian

●Uygar Onder Simsek, Turkish

●Martyn Aim, New Zealander

●Giles Clarke, British

Discovery

●Christina Simons, Icelandic

●Paul D'Haese, Belgian

●Hanlin Wang, Chinese

●Gibotta Antonio, Italian

●Jack Yong, Malaysian

●Maria Petrenko, Ukrainian

●Alys Tomlinson, British

●Martin Toft, Danish

●Edgar Martins, Portuguese

Landscape

●Alexander Meeus, Belgian

●Varun Thota, Indian

●Rohan Reilly, Irish

●Luca Locatelli, Italian

●Tomasz Padlo, Polish

●Rachael Talibart, British

●Amanda Harman, British

●Dan Welldon, British

●Ashley Gilbertson, Australian

Natural World

●Daniel Biber, German

●Wiebke Haas, German

●Roselena Ramistella, Italian

●Chris Schmid, Swiss

●Tsuimei Weng, Taiwan Region

●Neil Aldridge, South African

●Mitch Dobrowner, American

●Kaleb White, American

●Mark Edward Harris, American

Portraiture

●Anush Babajanyan, Armenian

●Michael Wickham, Australian

●Ariel Tagar, Israeli

●Krister Sørbø, Norwegian

●Tom Oldham, British

●Tim Fisher, British

●Christopher Occhicone, American

●Sasha Maslov, Ukrainian

●Andrew Quilty, Australian

Sport

●Martial Couderette, French

●Adam Pretty, Australian

●Norbert Hartyanyi, Hungarian

●Behnam Sahvi, Iranian

●Matteo Armellini, Italian

●Valeriy Sharifulin, Russian

●Paul Lukin, Croatian

●Rick Findler, British

●Patrick, Smith, American

●Balazs Gardi, Hungarian

Still Life

●Seizo Mori, Japanese

●Werner Anderson, Norwegian

●Yurian Quintanas Nobel, Spanish

●Fiona Yaron-Field, British

●Paul Hamilton, British

●Edgar Martins, Portuguese

●Tristan Spinski, American

●

OPEN CATEGORIES
Rewarding the best single images across 10 categories. Up to 10 photographers shortlisted in each category. Category winners will be announced March 20, and Open Photographer of the Year revealed April 19.

Shortlist

Architecture

• Jassen Todorov, American

●Zhaoting Wu, Chinese

●Dimitris Kleanthis, Greek

●Chaoyang Cai, Chinese

●Rajah Brooke, Singaporean

●Qingshan Zhao, Chinese

●Andreas Pohl, German

●Juan Soler Cózar, Spanish

●Caterina Bruzzone, Italian

●Emmanouil Smalios, Greek

Culture

●Xiao Qin Zhou, Chinese

●Panos Skordas, Greek

●Zongyi Lin, Chinese

●Katy Gomez Catalina, Spanish

●Don Ferdinand Tabbun, Filipino

●Shifang Lin, Chinese

●Lorenzo Tugnoli, Italian

●Xiaoxiao Liu, Chinese

●Azida Azizan, Malaysian

Enhanced

●Alex Bitiutskih, Russian

●Wenjie Qiao, American

●Kanishka Mukherji, Indian

●Klaus Lenzen, German

●Alexa Moon, Russian

●Jianguang Zhou, Chinese

●Giannis Papapostolou, Greek

●Andrius Burba, Lithuanian

●Kamila J. Gruss, Polish

●Jesus Roldan Andrade, Spanish

Motion

• ●Carlos DeLaRosa, American

●Olena Leliuk, Ukrainian

●Fuliang Cai, Chinese

●Andreas Hemb, Swedish

●Fajar Kristianto, Indonesian

●Manny Fajutag, Filipino

●Ole Steen Petersen, Danish

●Yonathan Kellerman, Canadian

●Milan Radisics, Hungarian

●Bambang Wirawan, Indonesian

Landscape and Nature

●Ales Krivec, Slovenian

●Nima Yaghoobi, Iranian

●Placido Faranda, Italian

●Nikolay Gorbunov, Russian

●Michael Haisermann, German

●Paranyu Pithayarungsarit, Thai

●Veselin Atanasov, Bulgarian

●Andrius Kundrotas, Lithuanian

●Livia Lazar, Romanian

●James Monnington, British

Portraiture

●Tina Signesdottir Hult, Norwegian

●Marie Moroni, French

●Tim Cavadini, German

●Thomas Dymond, British

●Pål Hansen, Norwegian

●Kenneth O’Halloran, Irish

●Sphiwo Hlatshwayo, South African

●Valentina Morrone, Italian

●Marcin Szpak, Polish

●Nick Dolding, British

Still Life

●Emilija Petrauskiene, Lithuanian

●Viktor Dontcov, Russian

●Fabien Perrot, French

●Richard Frishman, American

●Klaus Lenzen, German

●Clark Perkins, American

●Benjamin Aerssen, Canadian

●Masumi Shiohara, Japanese

●Nani Alisa Tischer, German

●Simone Nagel, German

Street Photography

●Jomel Bartolome, Filipino

●Krzysztof Tadeusz, Polish

●Tofazzal Hossain, Bangladeshi

●John White, British

●Omer Faidi, Turkish

●Niki Gleoudi, Greek

●Thanasorn Janekankit, Thai

●Manuel Armenis, German

●Michele Fornaciari, Italian

●Irene Solechhia, Italian

Travel

●Manish Mamtani, Indian

●Jonas Börnicke, German

●Richard Winston, American

●Ivan Margot, Swiss

●Qing Hu, Chinese

●Yijie Quan, Chinese

●Wei Tao, Chinese

●Chul-ui song, South Korean

●Mikkel Beiter, Danish

●Danny Wong, Malaysian

Wildlife

●Marc Baechtold, German

●Tom Way, British

●Pedro Jarque Krebs, Peruvian

●Swapnil Deshpande, Indian

●Petar Sabol, Croatian

●Jiri Michal, Czech

●Justyna Zdunczyk, Polish

●Will Clark, British

●Marco Gaiotti, Italian

●James Monnington, British

Commended

For the full list of commended photographers in the Open competition (up to 40 per category) please go to www.worldphoto.org/winners-galleries

YOUTH COMPETITION

Photographers aged 12-19 were asked to respond to a theme of ‘my environment’ with a single image. The Youth Photographer of the Year will be announced April 19.

Name / Nationality / Age upon entry

●Megan Johnson, American, 16 years old

●Sophia Palacio, American, 16 years old

●Dante Mogni, Argentinean, 17 years old

●Jonathan Walland, British, 18 years old

●Kalifa Etienne, British, 18 years old

●Mia Wignall, British, 16 years old

●Alannee May Noel, Filipino, 16 years old

●Melanie Zobel, Italian, 18 years old

●Iona Francis, New Zealander, 18 years old

●Anastasia Vasylenko, Ukrainian, 19 years old

STUDENT FOCUS

Open to all students worldwide studying photography. The Student Photographer of the Year will be announced April 19.

●Morgan Mulholland, Stellenbosch Academy of Design & Photography, South Africa

●Anshul Mehrotra, University of Lucknow, India

●Jasmine Farling, Swansea College of Art, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, United Kingdom (Finnish nationality)

●Martin Varret, Ecole Nationale Supérieure Louis-Lumière ENSLL, France

●Emma Spencer, North Warwickshire & Hinckley College, United Kingdom

●Izzy De Wattripont, University of West of England (UWE), United Kingdom

●Bianca Rocca, Auckland University, New Zealand

●Alejandro Marquez Perez, TFP Motivarte (Trayecto de Formación Profesional), Argentina

●Samuel Bolduc, College de Matane, Canada

●Cao Hongmei, Qilu University of Technology, China Mainland