The shortlists for the world’s biggest photography competition, the 2016 Sony World Photography Awards has been released this week.
This year’s competition has broken all records this year, receiving a massive 230,201 entries, up 28% on last year.
The Sony World Photography Awards is split into four separate photography competitions for Professional, Open, Youth and Student Focus, with each divided group into various categories. There are also National Awards for the best entries from different countries.
So far, the short listed entries have been announced for the Professional, Open and Youth competitions and images have been posted on the World Photography Organisation website.
The Student Focus shortlist is expected to be announced on March 1st.
Despite being “short” lists, there are still a massive number of images available for you to see, and there are truly wonderful and inspiring photographs amongst them.
The Youth competition is particularly interesting. Looking at some of the images shown in the Youth categories, there’s at least one or two names we should definitely be keeping an eye out for in the future.
The Professional Photographer of the Year plus overall Professional, Open and Youth category winners will be revealed in London, England on April 21st. They will share a $30,000 cash prize and receive the latest Sony digital imaging equipment.
The Sony World Photography Awards also have a travelling exhibition, taking place in cities all over the world. So far, the only location announced is at Somerset House in London, England, starting on April 22nd, the day after the winners are announced, and running until May 8th.
Here are a selection of the shortlisted entries from each category.
Professional Competition

© Rob Gregory, United States, Shortlist, Professional , Campaign

Giancarlo Ceraudo, Italy, Shortlist, Professional , Candid

© Alexander Semenov, Russia, Shortlist, Professional Environment

Marielle Van Uitert, Netherlands, Shortlist, Professional, Contemporary Issues

© Andrew Burton, United States, Shortlist, Professional , Current Affairs

© Mohammed Yousef, Kuwait, Shortlist, Professional Environment
Open Competition

© Peter Voss, Germany, Shortlist, Open Competition, Smile

© Valter Bernardeschi, Italy, Shortlist, Open Nature and Wildlife

© Valter Bernardeschi, Italy, Shortlist, Open Nature and Wildlife

© Hendra Permana, Indonesia, Shortlisted, Open Competition, Smile

© Amir Hoosein Kamali, Iran, Shortlist, Open Arts and Culture

© Swee Choo Oh, Malaysia, Shortlist, Open Arts and Culture
Youth Competition

© Ivana Pejak, Serbia, Shortlist, Youth Portrait

©Agung Krisna Wibawa, Indonesia, Shortlist, Youth Culture

Hongbo Zhu, China, Shortlisted, Youth Competition, Environment

©Ahmed Gaber, Egypt, Shortlist, Youth, Portrait

© Ramadhan Sinclair, Malaysia, Shortlist, Youth Culture
You can browse the full list of this year’s shortlisted entries here :
- View the Professional short listed entries
- View the Open short listed entries
- View the Youth short listed entries
If you’ve still not had enough, and want to browse through some of the previous years winners, you can also check out the Sony World Photography Awards Galleries from 2010-2015.
I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the winners.
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