BELGIAN PHOTOGRAPHER FREDERIK BUYCKX
is the sony World PhotograPhy aWards’ 2017 PhotograPher of the year. the awards’ judges were challenged to find the best photographic series and were taken by the beauty, scale and effort in Buyckx’s winning work, titled Whiteout.
Over 227,000 entries from 183 countries were submitted to the 2017 awards, making it the world’s largest photography competition by quite a significant margin.
frederik Buyckx’s photographs were selected from the winners of the awards’ ten Professional categories. Chair of Judges Zelda Cheatle explains the choice.
“i have chosen a series of landscapes so that we may return to the essence of looking at photography. landscape
“I HAVE CHOSEN A SERIES OF LANDSCAPES SO THAT WE MAY RETURN TO THE ESSENCE OF LOOKING AT PHOTOGRAPHY.” Zelda cheatle, chaIr of Judges, 2017 sony world photography awards
is often overlooked, but it is central to our existence. These are beautiful pictures made by a serious photographer, and they are to be enjoyed. I hope this award will inspire many more photographers to take pictures that do not simply encompass the terrible aspects of life in these troubled times, but also capture some of the joys and loveliness in each and every environment.”
Scott Gray, who is CEO of the World Photography Organisation, adds, “I am especially proud of this year’s selection of Photographer Of The Year. I feel that in many cases it is easy to shock, but that it can be so tremendously difficult to capture a sophisticated elegance that really is so beautiful it shows the medium of photography at its best”.
Born in Antwerp in 1984, Frederik Buyckx is a freelance photographer for the Belgian newspaper De Standaard. His images have been published and exhibited internationally and most recently he was shortlisted for the 2017 Zeiss Photography Award.