The World Photography Organisation is a global platform for

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

initiatives and helps artists working in photography broaden the conversation around their work. Established in 2007 by CEO Scott Gray, in the United kingdom it involves people and organisations from more than 180 countries. The World Photography Organisation hosts a year-round portfolio of events including the

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

World Photography Awards, and Photofairs—art fairs dedicated to presenting fine art photography and moving image. The company also creates, produces and delivers photographic events for a variety of partners, from exhibitions of individual artists, to platforms on the subject of photography involving artists, and curators from over 20 countries.

Sony World Photography Awards

Created by the World Photography Organisation, the

World Photography Awards are held annually. The awards are for photography from the past year and across a variety of photographic genres. More than 1.5 million images from 200+ countries and territories have been entered to the awards since their inception.

Competitions, jury and academy

The Sony World Photography Awards features four competitions: * Professional – bodies of work across 10 categories * Open – the best single images across 10 categories * Youth – work from young photographers aged 12 to 19 * Student – work from photography students The awards are judged annually by museum and gallery directors, curators, publishers, writers and artists. They are also supported by the World Photographic Academy.

Outstanding Contribution to Photography

Nadav Kander's work at the 2019 Sony World Photography Awards

Each year the Sony World Photography Awards honor one selected person / chosen people with its Outstanding Contribution to Photography prize. Past recipients of this prize include: * 2008:

Phil Stern Philip "Snapdragon" Stern (September 3, 1919 – December 13, 2014) was an American photographer noted for his iconic portraits of Hollywood stars, as well as his war photography while serving as a U.S. Army Ranger with "Darby's Rangers" during ...

* 2009:

Marc Riboud Marc Riboud (; 24 June 1923 – 30 August 2016) was a French photographer, best known for his extensive reports on the Far East: ''The Three Banners of China'', ''Face of North Vietnam'', ''Visions of China'', and ''In China''. Early life and e ...

* 2010:

Eve Arnold Eve Arnold, OBE (honorary), FRPS (honorary) (née Cohen; April 21, 1912January 4, 2012) was an American photojournalist, long-resident in the UK. She joined Magnum Photos agency in 1951, and became a full member in 1957. She was the first woma ...

* 2011: Bruce Davidson * 2012: William Klein * 2013:

William Eggleston William Eggleston (born July 27, 1939) is an American photographer. He is widely credited with increasing recognition for color photography as a legitimate artistic medium. Eggleston's books include ''William Eggleston's Guide'' (1976) and ''The ...

* 2014:

Mary Ellen Mark Mary Ellen Mark (March 20, 1940 – May 25, 2015) was an American photographer known for her photojournalism, documentary photography, portraiture, and advertising photography. She photographed people who were "away from mainstream society and t ...

* 2015:

Elliott Erwitt Elliott Erwitt (born Elio Romano Erwitt, July 26, 1928) is a French-born American advertising and documentary photographer known for his black and white candid photos of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings. He has been a member ...

* 2016: Rong Rong & inri * 2017:

Martin Parr Martin Parr (born 23 May 1952) is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, satirical and anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in p ...

* 2018:

Candida Höfer Candida Höfer (born 4 February 1944) is a German photographer. She is a former student of Bernd and Hilla Becher. Like other Becher students, Höfer's work is known for technical perfection and a strictly conceptual approach. From 1997 to 2000, ...

*2019:

Nadav Kander Nadav Kander HonFRPS (born 1 December 1961) is a London-based photographer, artist and director, known for his portraiture and landscapes. Kander has produced a number of books and had his work exhibited widely. He received an Honorary Fellow ...

*2020:

Gerhard Steidl Gerhard Steidl (born 1950) is a German printer and publisher. He is the founder of the publishing company Steidl. In 2020, he was awarded the Gutenberg Prize of the International Gutenberg Society and the City of Mainz. Life and work Gerhard Stei ...

* 2021:

Graciela Iturbide Graciela Iturbide (born May 16, 1942) is a Mexican photographer. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and is included in many major museum collections such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The J. Paul Getty Museum. Biograp ...

*2022:

Edward Burtynsky Edward Burtynsky (born February 22, 1955) is a Canadian photographer and artist known for his large format photographs of industrial landscapes. His works depict locations from around the world that represent the increasing development of indust ...

Photographer of the Year

This is awarded to the overall winner. * 2008:

Vanessa Winship Vanessa Winship HonFRPS (born 1960) is a British photographer who works on long term projects of portrait, landscape, reportage and documentary photography. These personal projects have predominantly been in Eastern Europe but also the USA. Wi ...

* 2009: David Zimmerman * 2010 Tomasso Ausili * 2011: Alejandro Chaskielberg * 2012: Mitch Dobrowner * 2013: Andrea Gjestvang * 2014:

Sara Naomi Lewkowicz Sara Naomi Lewkowicz is an 42 year old American photographer best known for her 2013 ''Time'' magazine article "Photographer as Witness: A Portrait of Domestic Violence". Her work with the article and Lewkowicz's overall work covering domestic viol ...

* 2015: John Moore * 2016: Asghar Khamseh * 2017: Frederik Buyckx * 2018:

Alys Tomlinson Alys Tomlinson (born 1975) is a British photographer. She has published the books ''Following Broadway'' (2013), ''Ex-Voto'' (2019), ''Lost Summer'' (2020) and ''Gli Isolani (The Islanders)'' (2022). For ''Ex-Voto'' she won the Photographer of the ...

* 2019: Federico Borella * 2020: Pablo Albarenga * 2021:

Craig Easton Craig Easton (born 26 February 1979) is a Scottish association football, football former player and coach. He began his playing career with Dundee United F.C., Dundee United in 1996 and went on to play over 200 first team matches, before leaving ...

Award ceremony, prizes and exhibition

2019 Sony World Photography Awards Ceremony

The Sony World Photography Awards ceremony is annually held in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

each April, and followed by an exhibition of the year's winning and shortlisted works at

Somerset House Somerset House is a large Neoclassical complex situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadrangle was built on the site of a Tudor palace ("O ...

in London. The artworks are then shown around the world as part of the Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition tour. Winning photographers also share cash prizes, Sony digital imaging equipment, publication in the annual Sony World Photography Awards book. Overall and Professional category winners are also flown to the London Awards ceremony.

Photofairs

The World Photography Organisation created the Photofairs brand in 2014. Its aim is to hold boutique events of traditional still photography through to large-scale installations, video works and the cutting edge of technology.

Overview

Photofairs present fine art photography and moving image from galleries and their artists for collectors. There are also VIP and public programs. Photofairs takes place annually Shanghai each September and has previously help two editions in San Francisco.

Zeiss Photography Award

Launched in 2015, the Zeiss Photography Award was a collaboration between the World Photography Organisation and

Zeiss Zeiss or Zeiß may refer to: People *Carl Zeiss (1816–1888), German optician and entrepreneur *Emil Zeiß (1833–1910), German Protestant minister and painter Companies *Carl Zeiss AG, German manufacturer of optics, industrial measurem ...

. The international photography contest annually invited photographers to submit bodies of work addressing a selected theme. All entries were free and the jury was specifically looking for artworks with a strong narrative. Winners received €12,000 worth of Zeiss lenses, €3,000 to cover travel costs for a photography project, an exhibition in

and the opportunity to work with Zeiss and the World Photography Organisation.

Past winners

* 2016: Tamina-Florentine Zuch,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

* 2017: Kevin Faingnaert,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

* 2018: Nick Hannes,

*2019 Rory Doyle,

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

*2020: KyeongJun Yang,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

References

External links

* {{Official website, www.worldphoto.org Photography organizations Awards established in 2008 Photography awards