In the run-up to the gala awards ceremony in London at the end of April, the ten category winners of the Sony World Photography Awards Open division have been announced, selected from over 70,000 entries made by amateur photographers. Each of them wins a new Sony A6000 camera and they're up with a chance of winning the $5,000 prize that accompanies the title Overall Open Photographer of the Year.
- Architecture – Holger Schmidtke, Germany
- Arts and Culture – Valerie Prudon, Australia
- Enhanced – Kylli Sparre, Estonia
- Low Light - Vlad Eftenie, Romania
- Nature & Wildlife – Gert van den Bosch, Netherlands
- Panoramic – Ivan Pedretti, Italy
- People - Arup Ghosh, India
- Smile - Alpay Erdem, Turkey
- Split Second - Hairul Azizi Harun, Malaysia
- Travel - Li Chen, China
As well as their new cameras, all of them will have their images exhibited at Somerset House, London between 1 and 18 May 2014, and the winner of the Overall Open Photographer of the Year title will be flown to London to collect her or his prize at the ceremony.
Nigel Atherton, the jury chair commented: 'Nigel Atherton, Jury Chair, comments: 'Photography is a language that transcends national borders and cultures, race, gender and social background....No two of this year’s Open category winners are from the same country but all share the ability to visually interpret the world around them in a unique and captivating way. The winning and shortlisted images demonstrate this gift with aplomb.'
