The Winning Photos of the 2023 Sony World Photography Awards
The World Photography Organization has announced the overall winners in the prestigious Sony World Photography Awards 2023 competition.
The “overall winners” announcement comes less than two months after 55 photographers earned National Awards and a month after the Professional Category finalists were unveiled.
Edgar Martins wins ‘Photographer of the Year’ with Moving Tribute to His Late Friend, Photojournalist Anton Hammerl
Acclaimed photographer, Edgar Martins of Portugal, has been named the Photographer of the Year in the Sony World Photography Awards 2023, the sixteenth edition of the massive competition.
Martins earned the top honor for his photo series Our War, which pays homage to Martins’ friend and photojournalist, the late Anton Hammerl, who was tragically killed during the Libyan Civil War in 2011 by government militia.
Frustrated by an inability to determine the remains of his deceased friend, Martins traveled to Libya. He covertly entered the country with the assistance of a smuggler. Once there, Martins realized that it would be impossible to carry out a thorough investigation of what happened to his friend, so he instead reflected on the question, “How does one tell a story when there is no witness, no testimony, no evidence, no subject?”
“In Our War Martins conjures and alludes to the absent central figure through a series of portraits of the people Hammerl had connected with and those involved in the fighting (freedom fighters or their descendants, ex-militia, local residents, Gaddafi loyalists or lookalikes, and so on). They were chosen because they either resembled him, had similar ideas and beliefs, or reminded Martins of him at different stages of their friendship. The project explores the idea of absence, of documenting, grieving, and honoring a subject as well as reflecting on the role of photography within a conflict zone. Martins’s approach is to confront these questions head-on: to embrace the idea of the fragmentary and the many contradictions and ambiguities intrinsic to war,” explains the World Photography Organization.
Martins wins a $25,000 cash prize, a collection of Sony digital imaging equipment, and a solo presentation of his work as part of next year’s Sony World Photography Awards exhibition.
“It is a huge honor to be recognized 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,” says Martins. “In this case, it is also quite an emotional experience because I get to honor 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.”
“Photography is so often about memory and its nature. Long-term memory is about the conscious recollection of past events and our knowledge of them — be it through direct experience or meditated through the myriad of media we use,” comments Mike Trow, Chair of the 2023 Professional competition. “Our Way by Edgar Martins has used memory and invention to give us a powerful, personal set of portraits that attempt to explain the last days of his friend, the photojournalist Anton Hammerl. His work highlights the lengths photographers will go to tell a story and create meaning; each image giving a sense of the journey Anton took without ever being explicit about how his life ended. The entire jury was fulsome in their appreciation of the work and its narrative force.”
The Professional category includes 10 categories. Martins won the first-place award in Portraiture. The winners of the nine other Professional categories are featured below.
Architecture and Design, Professional Competition
Chinese photographer Fan Li took home top honors in the “Architecture and Design” category for the photo series Cement Factory.
Creative, Professional Competition
Lee-Ann Olwage’s series The Right to Play earned the South African photographer the first prize in the “Creative” category.
Documentary, Professional Competition
For his series The Women’s Peace Movement in Congo, British photographer Hugh Kinsella Cunningham won the “Documentary” category.
Environment, Professional Competition
Two photographers won first place in the “Environment” category. Photographers Marisol Mendez (Bolivia) and Federico Kaplan (Argentina) collaborated on the winning series Miruku.
Landscape, Professional Competition
For Event Horizon, Polish photographer Kacper Kowalski rose to the top of the popular “Landscape” category.
Portfolio, Professional Competition
UK photographer James Deavin’s impressive portfolio won the “Portfolio” category.
Sport, Professional Competition
American Al Bello’s series Female Pro Baseball Player Succeeds in All Male Pro League earned first place in the Sport section.
Still Life, Professional Competition
Kechun Zhang of China took home first place for his “Still Life” series The Sky Garden.
Wildlife and Nature, Professional Competition
Rounding out the Professional categories is American photographer Corey Arnold. He earned the top prize in the “Wildlife and Nature” category for his series Cities Gone Wild.
Other Professional Winners, Professional Competition
Each Professional category also includes second and third-place winners. All winning images are available on the Sony World Photography Awards Professional competition winners website.
Open Photographer of the Year
The Open competition celebrates the power of a single image, rather than a photo series. Chosen from the 10 Open category winners, photographer Dinorah Graue Obscura (Mexico) earned the title Open Photographer of the Year for her image, Mighty Pair, that shows a pair of crested caracara birds in southern Texas.
“It is an absolute honor to receive the Open Photographer of the Year 2023 award. I am absolutely certain that this recognition will contribute to the dissemination of my work as a wildlife photographer, which aims to transmit and show people the beauty I see in nature. I believe that photography is a very powerful tool that can be used to raise awareness about the fragility of our natural world,” Graue Obscura says of her victory.
Beyond Graue Obscura’s winning image in the Natural World and Wildlife category, there are eight other Open category winners.
Architecture, Open Competition
Landscape, Open Competition
Lifestyle, Open Competition
Motion, Open Competition
Object, Open Competition
Portraiture, Open Competition
Street, Open Competition
Travel, Open Competition
Student Photographer of the Year
Chinese student, Long Jing from Yunnan Arts University, earned the title Student Photographer of the Year for his photo series Keep the Yunnan Opera. The series documents the decreasing number of performers and spectators of the traditional opera in Yunnan.
Jing’s victory earned him over $30,000 worth of Sony digital imaging equipment for his studies. His winning images will also be featured in the Sony World Photography Awards book and exhibition.
Youth Photographer of the Year
Another Chinese photographer, 17-year-old Hai Wang, has been crowned the Youth Photographer of the Year.
Wang’s winning image shows a deserted school ceremony canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wang receives a Sony digital imaging kit and global exposure for his efforts.
Sustainability Prize
Italian photographer Alessandro Cinque has been named the first-ever winner of the new Sustainability Prize for his series Atrapanieblas (Fog Nets).
The series documents an innovative solution addressing water shortages in Lima, Peru. Cinque’s series showcases “fog nets” and how they catch airborne moisture and make it usable for residents. Fog nets can collect up to 200 liters (53 gallons) of water daily.
Cinque receives a $5,000 cash prize and a presentation of his project.
The Sustainability Prize has been created in collaboration with the United Nations Foundation and Sony Pictures’ “Picture This” initiative. The program is designed to spotlight and amplify stories promoting peace and prosperity.
Latin American Professional Award
Angela Ponce of Peru has been named the Latin America Professional Award recipient for her Guardians of the Glaciers series. The series documents the Quechua community who live near the Quelccaya Ice Cap, the largest tropical glacier in the world.
Ponce’s portraits show how the locals are being affected by the ice cap’s recession. It is receding by about 60 meters (nearly 200 feet) annually.
Where to View More Winning Photos
The Sony World Photography Awards 2023 received more than 415,000 images from photographers in over 200 countries. Of these 415,000 photos, over 180,000 were entered into the Professional competition.
Selected Sony World Photography Awards finalists and winners are now on exhibit at Somerset House in London until May 1, 2023.
Each Professional category winner has additional images available to view. All winning and shortlisted photographs from the Sony World Photography Awards 2023 are available on the Sony World Photography Awards website. Users can also browse winning images dating back to the 2012 edition of the contest on the website.
Image credits: Sony World Photography Awards | All individual photographers are credited in the image captions
