SONY WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2018
if YOU’VE CHECKED out some of the winning images reproduced in this issue from the 2017 Sony World Photography Awards, you might be ready to have a go yourself. The 2018 competition is now open for entries and it’s entirely free, with a massive first prize of US$25,000 on offer plus lots of luvverly Alpha system gear from Sony.
This is the 11th running of the awards and there are two new categories in the Professional competition – called ‘Creative’ and ‘Discovery’ – and an opportunity for award winners to secure a grant to fund future photographic projects.
The World Photography Organisation, which runs the awards, says the new ‘Creative’ and ‘Discovery’ categories are designed to embrace photographers working at the cutting-edge of the medium. Judges will specifically look for originality, experimentation and imagination. Artistic interpretation, integrity and technical ability are the key factors for judges across all categories of the Awards.
You can enter a body of work – between five and ten images – in one of ten Professional categories (which means you need to be working as a photographer in some capacity), or the ten Open categories. There’s also a Youth category for anybody aged between 12 and 19 years, and a Student Focus category which is open to anybody currently studying photography. For the full list of competition categories and descriptions, go to www.worldphoto.org/ sony-world-photography-awards
The new Sony Grant program has been introduced for the Professional and Student Focus competitions this year. From the 2018 winners of these categories, Sony will award multiple grants of US$7000 to selected photographers to help them pursue photographic projects of their choice. In addition, shortlisted photographers from the Student Focus competition will each be given US$3500 to work together on a new photographic commission set by Sony and the World Photography Organisation.
The closing dates for entry to the 2018 Sony Awards are 4 December 2017 for the Student Focus category, 4 January 2018 for the Open and Youth categories and 9 January 2018 for the Professional category.
For any more information onthe Awards, visit www.worldphoto.org