The World Photography Organisation announces the winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2022. The title Photographer of the Year 2022 is awarded to Adam Ferguson (Australia) for the best series in the Portraiture category. Dutch photographer Ezra Bohm, a student at the Nederlandse Academie voor Beeldcreatie, was named Student Photographer of the Year 2022 for his series The Identity of Holland for the brief Connections.
Along with the title, Adam Ferguson receives the accompanying cash prize of $ 25,000 (USD) and Sony digital imaging equipment. The winners are revealed in a celebratory announcement video featuring interviews and reactions from the winning photographers, available at worldphoto.org/ceremony-2022
Photo Migrants: Carlos Sotos, age 34, from Guatemala City, and his son Enderson, age 8, make a portrait at the El Buen Samaritano migrant shelter in Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, on April 28, 2021.
Adam Ferguson: “This is a series of self-portraits by migrants in Mexico as they wait to cross the border into the United States. The life of a migrant at the border, waiting for the right moment to enter the United States, is often in motion. To capture a piece of this uncertain journey, I set up a medium-format camera on a tripod with a cable release and then stepped back, allowing the migrants to choose the moment of exposure and giving them agency in documenting their lives.”
Dutch photographer Ezra Bohm was invited to submit a series of five to ten images on the theme for the 2022 competition: Connections. Ezra and his school together receive Sony digital imaging equipment worth a total of € 30,000.
Photo Generation to Generation: Jan ten Napel is working to make traditional dress popular again among Urk’s younger generation. He is the only person in the Netherlands who still makes traditional “oorijzers,” the iron supports used to secure women’s lace caps. His efforts are succeeding, and young people are again taking pride in every aspect of their culture. Some wear traditional costumes to church or on special occasions.
Among ten Open category winners, Scott Wilson (UK) was named Open Photographer of the Year 2022 and receives a prize of $ 5,000 plus Sony equipment for his powerful photograph Anger Management in the Natural World & Wildlife category. The black-and-white image shows a dirt-caked wild mustang stirring up a dust storm in northwestern Colorado.
Selected from six category winners, Tri Nguyen (Vietnam, age 18) won the title Youth Photographer of the Year 2022 with his photograph Under The Moonlight. The photograph shows a young man basking in artificial moonlight against a dilapidated background. The moonlight symbolizes a spotlight shining on him and his desire to accept his flaws. The image is part of a series exploring self-reflection and the desire to break out of the matrix and embrace one’s imperfections.
Edward Burtynsky was named the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography 2022. Burtynsky is widely regarded as one of the world’s most accomplished contemporary photographers and is best known for his overwhelming images of industrial landscapes and the broader environmental crisis.
The Sony World Photography Awards 2022 exhibition opens on April 13 and runs through May 2, 2022, at Somerset House in London, featuring more than three hundred prints and hundreds of additional images on digital displays by winning and shortlisted photographers.
More information: www.worldphoto.org.
