Who Won Sony Photographer of the Year 2022?
Major prizes were awarded for a mud-caked mustang shot in Colorado and a portrait series captured on the border between the United States and Mexico.
Scott Wilson, Anger Management (2021). © Scott Wilson.
The World Photography Organisation has announced the winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2022, one of the medium's pre-eminent prizes.
Australian photographer Adam Ferguson won the Photographer of the Year title for his black and white portrait series 'Migrantes', which was commissioned by The New York Times.
In April and May 2021, Ferguson spent 11 days in Juarez and Reynosa covering the surge of migrants arriving at the US border from Central and South America after Donald Trump left the White House. Wanting to subvert what he describes as a narrative of marginalisation, he asked migrants to shoot self-portraits.
'Through collaborating with migrants, this series of photographs was an attempt to make images that inspired empathy, rather than sympathy,' he said. 'I'm grateful to the brave and resilient individuals who agreed to work with me, and receive this award on behalf of them also.'
Mike Trow, Chair of the prize's jury, said, 'there were other stories that we as a jury admired deeply but Adam's series stood out because it speaks so eloquently and warmly of people under hardship but who hold on to their decency and love regardless of place and wealth.'
The award for best individual image went to British photographer Scott Wilson for his photograph Anger Management (2021). The image depicts a wild mustang—covered in mud to shield against insect bites—stamping his hooves to ward off rivals at a watering hole.
'Viewing mustang behaviour in the wild is a raw and dynamic wildlife experience,' Wilson said. 'The image tension is symbolic of the conservation challenges facing wild horses in the American West, where these treasured animals are being rounded up in record numbers and removed from public lands.'
Category winners in the professional section of the competition were: Domagoj Burilović for Architecture & Design, Alnis Stakle for Creative, Jan Grarup for Documentary Projects, Shunta Kimura for Environment, Lorenzo Poli for Landscape, Hugh Fox for Portfolio, Adam Ferguson for Portraiture, Ricardo Teles for Sport, Haruna Ogata and Jean-Etienne Portail for Still Life, and Milan Radisics for Wildlife & Nature.
An exhibition of over 300 images from the winners and shortlisted photographers is now open at Somerset House, London, along with works celebrating Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky, who won this year's Outstanding Contribution to Photography award. The exhibition continues through 2 May.
On 11 June, Burtynsky will debut his creation In the Wake of Progress, a 22-minute event that sets video and photographs to an original score, at Luminato Festival Toronto. The immersive artwork will then tour the world.
'My hope is that this project, presented in venues and public squares globally — reaching nearly as far as I have travelled to create it — will provide a poignant statement illustrating the extent of human taking for the sake of modern progress,' Burtynsky said in a statement.
In February, the World Photo Organisation, which organises the Sony Photo Awards and PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai, announced that they had acquired a 25% stake in photography fair Photo London. Photo London will honour fashion photographer Nick Knight with their Master of Photography award when the fair return to Somerset House from 11 to 15 May. —[O]
