Sony World Photography Awards Professional Competition

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Entry Start:: 28th May 2010
Entry Close:: 5th January 2011

Submit your work for the chance to become the next Professional Photographer of the Year and win the coveted prize, L’iris d’Or, along with prize money of $25,000.

The professional is a serious photographer with a true passion for the job – the art of taking pictures, documenting a story, conceptualising an idea, capturing emotions and evoking a response from those who view the finished product.

Submissions must be based on a body of work and contain a minimum of 3 images and a maximum of 10 images.

Within the Professional competition, three distinct sectors within photography are discovered and awarded. The Commercial, Fine Art and Photojournalism & Documentary genres are all equally recognised and sought after.

Image entered in to any of the 15 professional categories must have been completed or first published in 2010.

Entering & Judging

Step One: Register
Step Two: Upload your Images into your portfolio
Step Three: Select your best bodies of work.
- There are 14 categories in the professional programme, spread across 3 main photographic genres
- Each photographer may submit up to a total of 10 images into a single professional category and a minimum of 3 – all must images per submission must be of the same body of work and will be judged as such.
Step Four: Your images will go through critical rounds of selections by the official 2011 Honorary Judging Committee – members of the World Photographic Academy. >> View the 2011 Honorary Judging Committee here.
Step Five: A shortlist of photographers in each of the 14 categories will be selected and announced in February 2011.
Step Six: If one of your images are selected to go into the top 100, you will then be judged by a selected jury including members of the World Photographic Academy.
Step Seven: For the final stage of judging, one single photographer will be chosen by the Honorary Judging Committee from the 14 First Place category winners. This photographer will be announced and awarded in London as the recipient of the 2011 L’Iris d’Or.
Step Eight - All 45 Category finalists will be showcased as part of the official 2011 Sony World Photography Awards winners exhibition in London, published in the winners book and announced to the worldwide press. These finalists will also be part of international Sony World Photography Awards winners exhibitions, have the opportunity to be represented by the World Photography Collection, showcased on the World Photography Organisation website and much more.
Step Nine: The first place winner of each category will receive all of the above plus:
- Be flown out to London
- Receive two nights’ accommodation in a luxury London hotel
- Receive week-long passes to attend the World Photography Festival featuring screenings, workshops, exhibitions, talks and other events taking place throughout London in April
- Receive VIP tickets to attend the Gala Evening Awards Ceremony
- And finally… Come on stage to collect their prize of $25,000 and Sony gifts.

Commercial Category Details

Peter Franck, Germany, Y2

Travel

Travel photography involves the documentation of an area's landscape, people, cultures, customs and history and can be defined as images that capture the mood of a time and place, portrays a land, its people, or a culture in its natural state, and has no geographical limitations.

Dustine Humphreys, United States, Dopamine - the lost tapes

Lifestyle

Lifestyle photography is photography re-creating "real" life situations in a controlled setting.

Elen Miroshkina, Russia

Still Life

In Commercial photography the Still Life photograph is intended to sell and/or promote a product.

Orlando dos Santos, Portugal, ‘On tour’

Fashion

Fashion photography covers the whole spectrum – from producing garments and accessories, to designing and creating, selling and wearing, from atelier to salon to catwalk, haute couture to street culture.

Peter Dench, UK, Someone’s had their Weetabix.

Campaign

A ‘campaign’ can be for the purpose of advertising, promotion or raising awareness. All photographic series submitted should clearly show the champion theme or critical message, fulfilling the original brief. The campaign could cover subjects as varied as an advertising campaign for a new product or brand, a political campaign, a health awareness campaign or an environmental campaign.

Fine Art Category Details

Michael Van Den Boggard, Germany, Shanghai

Architecture

Buildings viewed from different angles and perspectives.

Nelli Palomäki, Finland, Anni Maria at 24 with Donna

Portraiture

Portraiture typically involves the human face in eye contact with the camera/viewer.

Pawel Mlodkowski, Poland, Sexy Nose

Landscape

Aerial shots of vast sandy dunes, panoramic shots of rice terraces on a Balinese mountainside, a long view down a village street: the scale of Landscape photography has no limits.

Chiara Goia, Italy, Sculptors Village

Still Life

In Fine Art, Still life photography demands a highly refined sense of lighting, coupled with compositional skills such as painters possess.

Martin Mascheski, Germany, Procreation

Conceptual

Set-up photographs can be literal, abstract or conceptual, and unlike other categories in the competition

Photojournalism & Documentary Category Details

Fayaz Kabli, India, CONFLICT02

Current Affairs

Images which freeze moments, capture key personalities and celebrities, mark the news of the day, week or month and turning-point events.

Giulio di Stirco, Italy, Bihar Aftermath

Contemporary Issues

Contemporary issues force us to take note of dramas and tragedies, wars and crises both abroad and close to home.

Gordon Welters, Germany, Loveparade - Highway to Love

People

Portraiture photography which attempts to convey an image of what or who the person is, whether physically, or perhaps spiritually or emotionally, or you may also focus on a social or cultural context.

Vladimir Vyatkin, Russia, Masters of Musical Spheres (characters and moods from piano to forte)

Arts & Culture

Arts and Culture covers a broad range of subjects – from theatre and musicals, gigs and dance, to film, literature and the visual arts.

Julian Abram Wainwright, Canada, Freefall

Sport

Photographs capturing the drama and tension, character studies (of performers and players, onlookers and audiences), the skills and physical transformations associated with every sport.

You have not yet entered, why don't you give it a go

Enter Competition

Sony World Photography Awards Professional Competition

You have not yet entered, why don't you give it a go

Categories

Commercial

Fine Art

Photojournalism & Documentary

Entering & Judging

Commercial Category Details

Travel

Lifestyle

Still Life

Fashion

Campaign

Fine Art Category Details

Architecture

Portraiture

Landscape

Still Life

Conceptual

Photojournalism & Documentary Category Details

Current Affairs

Contemporary Issues

People

Arts & Culture

Sport

You have not yet entered, why don't you give it a go

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