In early October the world organization of photography announced the composition of the jury for the upcoming Sony World Photography Awards 2020.The 2020 expert jury will include representatives from various museums, gallery and art exhibition curators, and media professionals.
© Poung Young Kwak, South Korea, Open Competition, Landscape, 2020 Sony World Photography Awards
The authoritative Sony World Photography Awards competition gives photographers of all levels from around the world the right to submit their work for free to be judged, professionally assessed and compete for prizes. The upcoming competition promises to be the perfect platform to open the way for winners and nominees to reach audiences and recognition. The finalists will be shown in art galleries, participate in publishing projects, and receive extensive press coverage.
The Professional Jury, which will carry out a rigorous judging process to assess and select the best photographers in 10 creative categories, includes: Claudi Carreras Guillé n, independent curator, editor and cultural manager Touria El Glaoui, founding director of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair Katie Hollander, director of Annenberg Space for Photography Gwen Lee, director of the Singapore International Photography Festival and Brent Lewis, photo editor of The New York Times and co-founder of Diversify Photo.
For the third consecutive year, photo editor, curator and independent consultant Mike Trow, who has extensive experience preparing for and running previous Awards competitions, will lead the jury for the Professional Competition. He will also head the directorate of the Sony World Photography Awards 2020 winners’ exhibition.
The jury for this year’s Open and Junior Competition will be chaired by Gisela Kayser, Managing Director and Artistic Director of the Willy Brandt House cultural center in Berlin. Tim Clark, director, editor-in-chief and author of the online publication 1000 Words, will chair the jury for the 2020 Student Competition.
Entries for all categories are free to submit on the contest website >
Deadline for submissions:
● Youth Competition: June-December 2019. last day of each month
● Student Contest: Nov. 29, 2019.
Open Competition National Awards: January 7, 2020.
● Professional Competition: January 14, 2020.
Jury members will meet in London in January 2020 to discuss entries received. The first shortlisted nominees will be announced on February 4, 2020. Entries will be judged anonymously. For last year’s contest, 327,000 entries were submitted. submissions from 195 countries.
Four new initiatives in the Sony World Photography Awards 2020
This year will be the 13th time the competition has been held. It helps nurture and connect communities of photographers and creates new opportunities for those who are passionate about photography, especially in developing countries.In keeping with this tradition, the Sony World Photography Awards 2020 will launch four new initiatives.
Firstly, a new Latin America Professional Award category was launched, for which photographers from Latin American countries can compete. All entries from these countries submitted for the 2020 Professional Competition will also be included in a new category, whose finalists and winner will be rewarded with Sony professional digital photography equipment and have the opportunity to exhibit their photographic works in Mexico City in 2020.
To celebrate the new nomination, Mexico City will host an exhibition of the winners of the previous Sony World Photography Awards 2019, which will also showcase previously unpublished work by photographers from Latin America. The exhibit will run from Oct. 3-31, 2019, at Foto Museo Cuatro Caminos Gallery. For more information, please click here >
The second initiative relates to the launch of the China National Student Photography Award category, which Sony China is involved in. Designed to bring a new generation of photographers to the stage, the competition is open to all photography schools in mainland China. The plan is to select 10 of the most gifted Chinese student photographers. The winner will travel to London to take part in the Student Photographer of the Year, a competition for young photographers from around the world. For more information, please visit worldphoto.org/china-national-student-photography-award.
The next innovation in the Sony World Photography Awards 2020 was a change in the Junior Competition program, aimed at participants aged 12-19. More opportunities will open for them now, as they will be able to submit up to three photographic works on different subjects each month. Submissions will be accepted from June through December. Each month a winner will be selected to compete for the title of Youth Photographer of the Year.
Finally, another innovation in the Professional Photo Challenge, a new thematic area called “Environment,” reflecting the growing importance of this topic in photo art and photojournalism.
Sony World Photography Awards 2019
The work of the 2019 winners and finalists, including 2019 Photographer of the Year winner Federico Borella, continues to inspire photography enthusiasts around the world.
The exhibition of the best works from last year, providing a unique insight into the trends in contemporary photography, was held in London and attracted 25,000 people from across the globe. viewers. The exhibition then traveled to Spain and South Korea. Now on its way through Japan, France, Italy and Germany. A detailed schedule of the exhibition is available here >
Who are the esteemed members of the jury for the 2020 Sony World Photography Awards? I am curious to know who will be responsible for selecting this year’s winners and what their qualifications are in the field of photography.