Architecture, nature and climate define the Sony World Photography Awards 2023

"A photograph is both a pseudo-presence and a token of absence. Like a wood fire in a room, photographs—especially those of people, of distant landscapes and faraway cities, of the vanished past—are incitements to reverie,” noted American writer Susan Sontag in her book On Photography. Among the many discourses on what photography is and what it implies, her book has personally been a unique encounter. The questions on whether photography is documentation of real-world events or a different artistic perspective, on how photographs bring forth a new meaning to an unknown time, have been explored through the many statements in the book. At the end of the day, photographs, whether real or art, place simple life events or people or place on pedestals of momentary significance. The winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2023 also encapsulate these thoughts into frames captured amid nature, ruins, culture, people and science.

Edgar Martins (Portugal) was awarded this year’s Photographer of the Year title for his series Our War. Describing his series, Martins shares, “In 2011, my dear friend and the photojournalist, Anton Hammerl, travelled to Libya to cover the conflict between pro-regime and anti-Gaddafi forces. On April 5, he was forcefully abducted and killed by government militia. Frustrated by the lack of progress in the investigation to find his mortal remains, in 2022 I took matters into my own hands and travelled to Libya. This previously unseen body of work is structured as a self-portrait of Anton Hammerl through the people he photographed and met, and others involved in the conflict (freedom fighters or their descendants, ex-militia, local residents, Gaddafi loyalists or lookalikes, and so on). They were selected because they resembled him, espoused similar ideas and beliefs, or reminded me of him at different stages of our friendship. This project portrays a complex story, warped by absence, that talks of the difficulty of documenting, testifying, witnessing, remembering, honouring and imagining.”

In the Architecture and Design Category, Cement Factory by Fan Li was awarded first place. Her series explored Tieshan Cement Factory located in Guilin City in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in South China. The factory was built in 1996 and played an important role in Guilin’s economic development and urban construction. However, because it was originally located in the Li River Scenic Area of Guilin, the cement factory has now been relocated, leaving behind old buildings, water towers, pools and railway tracks. Servaas Van Belle’s Stal - Vernacular Animal Sheds bagged the second prize. While talking about the series, Van Belle shares, “Livestock shelters in fields are so common in the Belgian landscape that nobody pays them much attention, but the countryside offers a range of architectural gems in many shapes, materials and colours. For five years, I crisscrossed Belgium to find just the right kind of shed, carefully listing them so I was prepared to photograph them in 'perfect' lighting conditions, by which I mean dense fog. In a way, a photograph of a weather-beaten shed is an allegory for our lives: we all muddle on, we try our best, we carry the scars and we all die horizontally in the end. Humans harbour a deep longing for shelter, warmth and security and that is perhaps what makes these wondrous little structures so human." The third prize was awarded to In Memoriam: Muralla Roja by Ricardo Bofill by Andres Gallardo Albajar where he photographed one of the most iconic pieces of Spanish architecture designed by Ricardo Bofilla, as a personal tribute to Bofilla and his legacy.

In the Environment Category, Marisol Mendez and Federico Kaplan won the first prize with the series Miruku, which focuses on the Wayuus, an indigenous population from La Guajira, Colombia's coastal desert. Commissioned by the 1854/British Journal of Photography and WaterAid, the project examines how a combination of climate change issues and human negligence have led its various members to experience a stifling water shortage. The Dying River by Jonas Kakó was awarded the second prize for capturing the current state of the Colorado River, which due to extensive agriculture, dams, huge canal systems and the diversion of water to growing cities in the desert has been drying up and no longer reaches the delta. Winning the third prize, Axel Javier Sulzbacher's Green Dystopia explores the rising demand for avocados worldwide and how that has led to more extensive and numerous plantations, with forests being cleared illegally to plant more avocados.

In the Landscape category, Event Horizon by Kacper Kowalski was awarded the first prize, talking about which Kowalski mentions, “At the start of winter I set out on a journey in search of harmony. Driven by instinct, I ventured further and further until I passed the boundaries of rationality. Whether it was fog or snow, frost or thaw, I took to the sky to see if it was possible to fly. When I could, I flew over frozen bodies of water, fascinated by their icy forms. Between January and March, I made 76 solo flights in a gyrocopter or a motorised paraglider, covering around 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) and spending 200 hours in the air. My photographs were taken from a height of approximately 50-150 metres (165-495 feet) above bodies of water near Tricity in northern Poland.” Postcards from Afghanistan after forty years of war by Bruno Zanzottera won second place for documenting his journey through Afghanistan after 40 years of war and four years of drought. The third prize was bestowed on Loss and Damage by Fabio Bucciarelli in which the photographer captures the alarming challenges that the climate crisis is bringing to South Sudan, an already vulnerable country.

In the Wildlife and Nature category, Corey Arnold’s Cities Gone Wild won the first prize. “Cities Gone Wild is an exploration of three savvy animals—black bears, coyotes and raccoons—that have uniquely equipped to survive and even thrive in the human-built landscape while other animals are disappearing. I tracked these animals in cities across America to reveal a more intimate view of how wildlife is adapting to increased urbanisation," shares Arnold. Small Backlit Animals by Adalbert Mojrzisch was awarded the second prize for high-resolution photographs taken through a microscope using a self-made setup, and the raw images that were processed, stacked and retouched. The series emphasises the idea that small, inconspicuous, mostly grey insects, spiders, and crabs reveal many colours and interesting structures under high magnification and polarised backlight. Billions of Synchronous Fireflies Light up a Tiger Reserve by Sriram Murali was announced as the third prize, defining which Murali said, “Searching for stars near my hometown of Pollachi, India, I was led to the forests of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve. The further I moved away from the towns and their lights, the darker it got and the more I could see stars and fireflies. I was fascinated by the hundreds of fireflies flashing at the edge of the forest but recalled hearing stories of trees laden with fireflies deep in the forest. So, in April 2022, I set out to a remote area of the reserve with forest officials. Flashes of green started appearing at twilight and as the place grew dark, millions of fireflies started synchronising their flashes across several trees. The flashes would start in one tree and continue across other trees like a Mexican wave. Such large congregations of fireflies are very rare, and this series captures the phenomenon of fireflies turning an entire forest into a magical carpet of yellowish-green light. The images were created by stacking several photographs.”

Furthermore, in the other categories of the 2023 Professional Competition, The Right To Play by Lee-Ann Olwage won first place in the Creative category,  The Women's Peace Movement in Congo by Hugh Kinsella Cunningham won in the Documentary Projects category and The Sky Garden by Kechun Zhang won in the Still Life category.

In the Portfolio category, James Deakin won first prize for his Portfolio shot in the first half of 2022 in Saudi Arabia, and in the Sports category, Female Pro Baseball Player Succeeds in All Male Pro League by Al Bello won the first prize.

The exhibition presenting all the winning photographs is on display at London's Somerset House until May 1, 2023.