In This Place: Scot gets Sony recognition

A British photographer has won the top prize in the annual Sony World Photography Awards.

London-based Alys Tomlinson is the first Briton for ten years to win the honour, and the first woman in five years to be awarded the $25,000 top prize. Her winning work encompassed formal portraiture, large format landscape and small, detailed still-life images of the exvotos – offerings of religious devotion – found at pilgrimage sites in France, Ireland and Poland.

Ms Tomlinson said: “This is a huge boost both personally and professionally. It’s a project I invested so much in, so this recognition makes it all worth it.”

Scottish photographer Margaret Mitchell, whose work is currently on display at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, won second place in the professional contemporary issues category. German photographer Candida Hofer was honoured for an outstanding contribution to the industry.

Stirling-born photographer Margaret Mitchell’s image Leah on her Primary 7 prom night has been ranked in the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards. The picture, part of a series entitled In The Place, explores whether our lives are pre-determined by...

Clockwise from above: The interior of Trinity College Library Dublin by Candida Hofer; a portrait from the Ex Voto series by Alys Tomlinson; portrait of Steven from Margaret Mitchell’s series In This Place