Cowgirl Barrel Racing is one of the highlights of the World Photography Open Awards
The Sony World Photography Awards has announced the winners of the Open category, as well as the shortlist of final images, selected from over 200,000 entries competing for the 2023 Open Photographer of the Year title.
The overall winners of the student, youth and professional competitions are yet to be announced, which are expected to be announced next month at the prestigious awards ceremony on April 13 in London, England.
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Recognizing the best individual shots from 2022, the Sony World Photography Awards (SWPA) aim to showcase the excellence of global photography without erecting barriers to participation and welcome photographers of all ages, abilities, incomes and abilities, to display their best work for consideration.
Over 415,000 images were submitted across all categories and by photographers from around the world, representing 200 different countries and territories.
The SWPA is essentially the Photography Olympics and only the very best images and photographers are destined to come out on top, selected by a respected panel of industry judges.
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The overall winner in the architecture category was photographer Mark Benham from Great Britain the silos (above) what had been captured in the port of Brest, France.
German photographer Boris Eldagsen won the “Creative” category with his picture The Electria (below), a black and white portrait of two women who are clearly from very different generations.
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An image of a Greek mountain landscape showing a hiker scaling Mount Tymf won the Landscape category. The untitled image (below, above) captured by Giorgos Rousopoulos also shows distant Pindus National Park.
Azim Khan Ronnie was the overall winner in the Lifestyle category with her picture, childhood (below, below), showing children playing with a dry rice cart and giant cones (topaz) at a rice processing plant in Bangladesh.
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Zhenhuan Zhou, who is from Mainland China, was named the winner in the Motion category for his recording. Hit the brakes (beginning of this article), this shows a cowgirl in a barrel racing competition held in Ontario, Canada.
The winner in the Natural World & Wildlife category was photographer Dinorah Graue Obscura from Mexico Powerful couple (below) showing two crested caracara birds posing perfectly together creating a balanced black and white portrait taken during a trip to South Texas.
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Mieke Douglas from the Netherlands won the category Object, Recycled (below, above) with flower-like plastic bags and tulle arranged as a bouquet.
The winner in the Portrait category was British photographer Sukhy Hullait charlie (below, below) – a photo of a young teenager turning an abandoned parking lot into a skate park during the pandemic shutdown of social spaces.
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Andreas Mikonauschke from Germany won the main prize in the Street Photography category for Exhausted, a black and white portrait of people carrying religious statues and relics through the streets of Andalusia during the traditional “Semana Santa”.
Finally a black and white picture with the title ghosts (below) won the Travel category and was captured by British photographer Max Vere-Hodge. It shows the Mundari tribe of South Sudan amid the nightly fires that are lit to deter tsetse flies and mosquitoes from Ankole Watusi cows.
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Each category winner will receive Sony photography equipment and the opportunity to compete for the prestigious Open Photographer of the Year title and a generous prize pool of $5,000 (approx. £4,150 / AU$7,570).
The overall winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2023 will be announced on April 13th and will be on view as part of the exhibition at Somerset House, London, from April 14th to May 1st, 2023.
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