2012 Sony World Photography Awards Winners Announcement

Sony World Photography Awards 2012L'Iris d'Or and Winners Announced

American photographer Mitch Dobrowner has been announced as this year’s winner of the coveted L’Iris d’Or - the 2012 Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year.  

Dobrowner was presented with the award during the Sony World Photography Awards Gala ceremony at the Hilton Hotel in London’s Park Lane for his extraordinary series of images, Storms.

Dobrowner was chosen as the winner of the L’Iris d’Or by a panel of nine judges. In addition to a $25,000 cash prize and Sony’s latest digital imaging camera equipment, he is awarded the accolade of joining previous L’Iris d’Or winners Alejandro Chaskielberg, David Zimmerman and Vanessa Winship as a member of the World Photographic Academy. 

View his full series of images here

Read the press release for all 2012 winners announcements

The Sony World Photography Awards Open Photographer of the Year

The Sony World Photography Awards Open Photographer of the Year title was awarded to Tobias Bräuning for his innovative and striking image Dancing Queen, in the split second category.

View the 2012 Open Competition winners gallery here.

All of the winning images will be on display in the Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition, Somerset House, 27th April - 20th May.

Outstanding Contribution

This year’s Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award went to William Klein; one of the 20th century’s most important and influential photographers and film-makers. With a career spanning the past 60 years, Klein, 83, has worked in painting, photography and film, always at the cutting edge of his chosen medium. 

Read the full news piece

Credit: William Klein/Courtesy HackelBury Fine Art, London

Professional Category Winners

The professional category winners, 2nd Place and 3rd Place have been announced; covering the newly introduced Nature & Wildlife category alongside others such as Current Affairs and Travel.

Among the winners are Peter Franck from Germany who, returning from his victory at the 2010 Awards, and after being shortlisted in four categories, triumphed in the Commercial campaign and fashion categories, and the UK’s Simon Norfolk, winner of the Photojournalism & Documentary People category, who is the author of books such as Bleed – based on the aftermath of war in Bosnia.  

View the full list of winners in our press release 

View all the category galleries here

Student Focus Award Winner

Student photographer Asef Ali Mohammad from Middlesex University, UK, has been announced as the winner of the Student Focus award that attracted entries from over 200 institutions across six continents.  

View the winner and the shortlisted images

Youth Award Winner

The title of Sony World Photography Awards Youth Award Winner went to Sergey Kolyaskin from Russia, for his image The Last Hero.

View the winner and the shortlisted images

3D Award Winner

The 3D Award, new this year to the competition, was awarded to Nick Saglimbeni from the United States for his stunning image, Nuclear Summer. As we cannot show 3D images on our website here is the 2D version.   

Moving Image Award Winner

The Moving Image Award went to Natasha Nicholson and Michael McDougall from Canada, for their short film Dead Languages. 

Watch the film here. 

View the shortlisted films here.