The World Photography Organisation (WPO) has revealed the category winners in the Sony World Photography Awards Open and Youth competitions. The jury, chaired by Nigel Atherton, Group Editor, IPC Photo, UK, selected ten category winners for the Open competition, including Holger Schmidtke, Valerie Prudon, Kylli Sparre, Vlad Eftenie, Gert van den Bosch, Ivan Pedretti, Arup Ghosh, Alpay Erdem, Li Chen (for the photo, "Rain in an Ancient Town," above) and Hairul Azizi Harun. The category winners in the Youth competition include Paulina Metzscher, Turjoy Chowdhury and Borhan Mardani.

Update: Borhan Mardani has been disqualified - the new winner is Anastasia Zhetvina.

WPO Press Release

2014 Sony World Photography Awards Open, Youth and National Award Winners Revealed

• Winners beat competition from over 70,000 entries worldwide
• Winning work to be exhibited at Somerset House, London, 1-18 May

The winners for the Open, Youth and National Award competitions of the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards are announced today by the World Photography Organisation.

Selected from over 70,000 entries from across the world, the achievement of each of the winners from across the three competitions is extraordinary - both in terms of the number of photographs they have been chosen from but also that the photographers themselves are not professionals, but individuals who are passionate about photography, enthusiasts and amateurs.

All three competitions were judged on a single shot and prizes range from the latest Sony digital imaging equipment to trips to London to attend the Sony World Photography Awards gala ceremony on 30 April.  The ten Open winners will also compete for a $5,000 (USD) prize and the Overall Open Photographer of the Year title.

All the winning photographers can also enjoy the international exposure and recognition brought to them and their image by the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards.

OPEN COMPETITION
Open to all photography enthusiasts, the jury, chaired by Nigel Atherton, Group Editor, IPC Photo, UK, selected ten category winners who 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 - Li Chen, China

Each of the ten category winners receives a Sony a6000 camera.  In addition the photographers will have their work exhibited at Somerset House, London from 1-18 May and the image will be published in the 2014 edition of the annual Sony World Photography Awards book. 

The ten winners will now compete for the Sony World Photography Awards Open Photographer of the Year title and $5,000 (USD) prize.  The overall winning Open photographer will be announced at a gala ceremony in London on 30 April and this photographer will be flown to London to collect his/her prize.

Nigel Atherton, Jury Chair, 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.”

YOUTH COMPETITION
Open to photographers under the age of 20, the Youth competition uncovers emerging talent.  The category winners are:

Culture - Borhan Mardani, Iran disqualified, new winner: Anastasia Zhetvina, Russia
Environment – Turjoy Chowdhury, Bangladesh
Portraits - Paulina Metzscher, Germany

Each winner receives a Sony a5000 camera and will have their work exhibited as part of the Sony World Photography Awards exhibition in London in May and published in the annual book.

From the three category winners, one overall Youth Photographer of the Year will be selected and will be flown to London to collect their award on 30 April.

NATIONAL AWARDS
Thirty eight countries, from Colombia to New Zealand, Kenya to the Nordics, took part in the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards’ National Award programme.

The National Awards uncover and honour the best single image taken by a local photographer and are judged by a local jury of photography experts.

The winners are given a range of prizes from a trip to London to attend the Sony World Photography Awards gala dinner on 30 April to the latest digital imaging equipment from Sony.

A full list of the winners of the National Awards programme can be seen atworldphoto.org/nationalaward 

Tickets for the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition in London are now on sale atwww.worldphoto.org/2014exhibition

Photo © Li Chen, Winner Open Travel 2014 Sony World Photography Awards

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