Edgar Martins wins Sony World Photography Awards 2023
The World Photography Organisation announced today the overall winners in the prestigious Sony World Photography Awards 2023 at a special gala ceremony in London, hosted by broadcaster and art historian Kate Bryan.
The Photographer of the Year title has been awarded to the acclaimed photographer Edgar Martins (Portugal) for his series Our War, a homage to Martins’ friend, photojournalist Anton Hammerl, who was killed during the Libyan Civil War in 2011.
Martins won a $25,000 cash prize and a range of Sony digital imaging equipment. Additionally, Martins receives a solo presentation of his work as part of next year’s Sony World Photography Awards exhibition. This opportunity allows photographers to further develop their winning project or exhibit a brand new body of work, gaining them additional exposure for their practice.
Martins was selected from the 10 category winners of the Professional competition who were announced today alongside those in 2nd and 3rd place in each Professional category. The overall winners of the Awards’ Open, Youth and Student competitions were additionally revealed.
Commenting on his win Martins says:
‘It is a huge honour to be recognised and although I am philosophical about awards and the subjective nature of someone’s choice, knowing that there were over 180,000 entries to this year’s Professional competition, is very humbling.
“In this case, it is also quite an emotional experience because I get to honour my friend on a world stage and bring attention to the family’s plight to find his remains. There’s no award that has the reach of the Sony World Photography Awards.”
Also announced is Alessandro Cinque (Italy), the first-time winner of the Sustainability Prize – developed in collaboration with the United Nations Foundation and Sony Pictures’ Picture This initiative – this new $5,000 (USD) award recognises the stories, people and organisations whose actions highlight one of the United Nations’ environmental Sustainable Development Goals.
The Sony World Photography Awards 2023 exhibition opens at Somerset House, London from 14 April – 1 May 2023, featuring over 200 prints and hundreds of additional images in digital displays from winning and shortlisted photographers. Also presented are works by this year’s Outstanding Contribution to Photography, the esteemed Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi.
PROFESSIONAL CATEGORY WINNERS
Winning photographers in the Professional competition have been selected by a panel of expert judges for submitting an outstanding body of work of five to 10 images, ranging from stories of war and reconciliation to the empowerment of women through education, and original approaches to the genres of still life and sport.
All category winners receive Sony’s digital imaging kit. This year’s winners are:
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
WINNER: Fan Li (China Mainland) for his series Cement Factory
Finalists: 2nd place Servaas Van Belle (Belgium); 3rd place Andres Gallardo Albajar (Spain)
CREATIVE
WINNER: Lee-Ann Olwage (South Africa) for her series The Right to Play
Finalists: 2nd place Noemi Comi (Italy); 3rd place Edoardo Delille & Giulia Piermartiri (Italy)
DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS
WINNER: Hugh Kinsella Cunningham (United Kingdom) for his series The Women’s Peace Movement in Congo
Finalists: 2nd place Mohammed Salem (State of Palestine); 3rd place Tariq Zaidi (United Kingdom)
ENVIRONMENT
WINNER: Marisol Mendez (Bolivia) & Federico Kaplan (Argentina) for their series Miruku
Finalists: 2nd place Jonas Kakó (Germany); 3rd place Axel Javier Sulzbacher (Germany)
LANDSCAPE
WINNER: Kacper Kowalski (Poland) for his series Event Horizon
Finalists: 2nd place Bruno Zanzottera (Italy); 3rd place Fabio Bucciarelli (Italy)
PORTFOLIO
WINNER: James Deavin (United Kingdom) for his submission Portfolio
Finalists: 2nd place Marylise Vigneau (France); 3rd place Marjolein Martinot (Netherlands)
PORTRAITURE
WINNER: Edgar Martins (Portugal) for his series Our War
Finalists: 2nd place Ebrahim Noroozi (Islamic Republic of Iran); 3rd place Jean-Claude Moschetti (France)
SPORT
WINNER: Al Bello (United States) for his series Female Pro Baseball Player Succeeds in All Male Pro League
Finalists: 2nd place Andrea Fantini (Italy); 3rd place Nicola Zolin (Italy)
STILL LIFE
WINNER: Kechun Zhang (China Mainland) for his series The Sky Garden
Finalists: 2nd place Carloman Macidiano Céspedes Riojas (Peru); 3rd place Jagoda Malanin (Poland)
WILDLIFE & NATURE:
WINNER: Corey Arnold (United States) for his series Cities Gone Wild
Finalists: 2nd place Adalbert Mojrzisch (Germany); 3rd place Sriram Mural (India)
To find out more about this year’s winning and finalist projects please visit online winners galleries
