The prestigious Photographer of the Year title has been awarded to the acclaimed snapper Edgar Martins (from Portugal) for his series Our War.
The submission was a poignant and moving homage to Martins’ friend, photojournalist Anton Hammerl, who was killed during the Libyan Civil War in 2011.
Martins was selected from the 10 category winners of the Professional competition who were announced at a glitzy event at London’s Hilton Park Lane hotel.
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The overall winners of the awards’ Open, Youth and Student competitions were also revealed.
A stunning exhibition featuring all the best work from the winning entries (and those in second and third place in each category) is now open at Somerset House and will run until May 1.
The show includes more than 200 prints and hundreds of additional images in digital displays from winning and shortlisted photographers.
Also presented are a range of works by this year’s winner of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography gong, the esteemed Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi.
Reacting to his $25,000 win, Martins gushed: ‘It is a huge honour to be recognised and although I am philosophical about awards and the subjective nature of someone’s choice, knowing that there were over 180,000 entries to this year’s Professional competition, is very humbling.
Emotional experience
“In this case, it is also quite an emotional experience because I get to honour my friend on a world stage and bring attention to the family’s plight to find his remains. There’s no award that has the reach of the Sony World Photography Awards.”
While Mike Trow, Chair of the 2023 Professional competition said: “Photography is so often about memory and its nature. Long-term memory is about the conscious recollection of past events and our knowledge of them - be it through direct experience or mediated through the myriad of media we use.
“Our War by Edgar Martins has used memory and invention to give us a powerful, personal set of portraits that attempt to explain the last days of his friend, the photojournalist Anton Hammerl.
“His work highlights the lengths photographers will go to to tell a story and create meaning; each image giving a sense of the journey Anton took without ever being explicit about how his life ended. The entire jury this year was fulsome in their appreciation of the work and its narrative force.”
Photographer of the Year
The winning project is an homage to Martins' friend, photojournalist Anton Hammerl, who was shot and killed during the Libyan Civil War in 2011.
Martins chose to reflect on the question: how does one tell a story when there is no witness, no testimony, no evidence, no subject?
Edgar Martins was born in Évora, Portugal, in 1977. He has exhibited internationally, and his work is represented in multiple museums, corporate and private collections. Between 2002 and 2022 Martins published 15 separate monographs, which were received with critical acclaim, and he was selected to represent Macau (China) at the 54th Venice Biennale.
Outstanding contribution to Photography
This year’s Outstanding Contribution to Photography has been awarded to the celebrated photographer Rinko Kawauchi. One of the most important Japanese photographers working today, Kawauchi has achieved international renown for her intimate and luminous images, capturing ephemeral moments of everyday life.
More than 20 images by the photographer will be shown at the Sony World Photography Awards 2023 exhibition. The selection, made by the artist, spans over two decades of her career and highlights significant milestones and themes across some of her most iconic series: Illuminance(2011), AILA (2004), Utatane (2001), and Ametsuchi (2013).
The awards are run by Creo which was established in 2007 as World Photography Organisation. Creo has since grown in scope, furthering its mission of developing meaningful opportunities for creatives and expanding the reach of its cultural activities. Creo boss Inbal Mizrahi was at the ceremony to present Rinko Kawauchi with her award.
Category winners
All category winners receive Sony’s digital imaging kit. This year’s winners are:
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
WINNER: Fan Li (China Mainland) for his series Cement Factory
2nd place Servaas Van Belle (Belgium); 3rd place Andres Gallardo Albajar (Spain)
CREATIVE
WINNER: Lee-Ann Olwage (South Africa) for her series The Right to Play
2nd place Noemi Comi (Italy); 3rd place Edoardo Delille & Giulia Piermartiri (Italy)
DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS
WINNER: Hugh Kinsella Cunningham (United Kingdom) for his series The Women’s Peace Movement in Congo
2nd place Mohammed Salem (State of Palestine); 3rd place Tariq Zaidi (United Kingdom)
ENVIRONMENT
WINNER: Marisol Mendez (Bolivia) & Federico Kaplan (Argentina) for their series Miruku
2nd place Jonas Kakó (Germany); 3rd place Axel Javier Sulzbacher (Germany)
LANDSCAPE
WINNER: Kacper Kowalski (Poland) for his series Event Horizon
2nd place Bruno Zanzottera (Italy); 3rd place Fabio Bucciarelli (Italy)
PORTFOLIO
WINNER: James Deavin (United Kingdom) for his submission Portfolio
2nd place Marylise Vigneau (France); 3rd place Marjolein Martinot (Netherlands)
PORTRAITURE
WINNER: Edgar Martins (Portugal) for his series Our War
2nd place Ebrahim Noroozi (Islamic Republic of Iran); 3rd place Jean-Claude Moschetti (France)
SPORT
WINNER: Al Bello (United States) for his series Female Pro Baseball Player Succeeds in All Male Pro League
2nd place Andrea Fantini (Italy); 3rd place Nicola Zolin (Italy)
STILL LIFE
WINNER: Kechun Zhang (China Mainland) for his series The Sky Garden
2nd place Carloman Macidiano Céspedes Riojas (Peru); 3rd place Jagoda Malanin (Poland)
WILDLIFE & NATURE
WINNER: Corey Arnold (United States) for his series Cities Gone Wild
2nd place Adalbert Mojrzisch (Germany); 3rd place Sriram Mural (India)
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