www.worldphoto.org

The shortlist for the 2011 Sony World Photography Awards is announced today, Tuesday 1 February. With a Professional competition spanning the three genres of Photojournalism & Documentary, Fine Art and Commercial, and an Open competition for photographers of all abilities, the Sony World Photography Awards is the most comprehensive photographic competition in the world today.

The shortlist for this year’s Professional competition was selected by the Honorary Judging Committee, comprising world-renowned figures from the international photographic industry including photographers, picture editors, agents and critics. The jury, who came together in London to make their selection, was chaired by the British photography critic Francis Hodgson. The winners will be announced on 27 April.

The 2011 competition has attracted more submissions than ever before, reaching all corners of the globe, with over 105,000 entries from 162 counties. The shortlist includes a number of winners and finalists from previous years including Amit Madheshiya, Peter Frank, Denis Rouvre, Giulio Di Sturco and Tommaso Bonaventura.

Astrid Merget, Creative Director of the World Photography Organisation commented on the Professional award selections: “This has been an extraordinary year for the competition. With the highest number of entries since the awards were founded, we are clearly reaching a vast international community of photographers. Even so, the honorary jury continues to push the level of quality accepted into the shortlist extremely high, selecting only the best. All within the shortlist should certainly be very pleased with their accomplishment.”

Francis Hodgson, Chair of the Honorary Judging Committee, added: “It is remarkable that a suite of awards with such a broad reach produces imagery of such quality, but it does. Submissions came from across the photographic spectrum, and it was obvious that the judging panel would meet a great deal of variety. But we met vigour, too, and that was perhaps less to be expected. It is pleasing to be able to report that the photography we saw was not only made with great photographic skill; it showed great communication skills as well, and that, surely, when all is said and done, is the point.”

In the Professional competition there are 15 categories within the three subject genres: Photojournalism & Documentary (Current Affairs, Contemporary Issues, People, Arts & Culture and Sport); Commercial (Campaign, Travel, Lifestyle, Still Life and Fashion) and Fine Art (Architecture, Portraiture, Landscape, Still Life and Conceptual).

There are ten categories in the Open competition for anyone with an interest in photography. They are: Action, After Dark, Architecture, Arts & Culture, Fashion, Nature & Wildlife, Panoramic, People, Smile and Travel. This year the Open entries were judged by a pre-selection committee of inspectors from iStockphoto. The category winners and the overall Sony World Photography Awards Open Photographer of the Year will be chosen by the final selection jury comprising Francis Hodgson, Andrew Saunders, Vice President, Creative Imagery, Getty Images; Joseph Jean Rolland Dubé, Vice President, Content Development, iStockphoto; Yann Salmon-Legagneur (Sony Europe Marketing -DSLR) and Paul Genge (Sony UK Technical Marketing - DSLR).

Of the Open competition, Joseph Jean Rolland Dubé, comments: “This is iStock's third year in reviewing these open entries. The competition is getting more fierce every year and the best images are the epitome of creativity and skill. Congrats to the World Photography Organiation for compelling such amazing entries... and let there be such a venue dedicated to raw talent for years to come.”

The Sony World Photography Awards winners will be showcased as part of the World Photography Festival and Exhibitions at Somerset House in London. With an emphasis on creating a social networking and meeting place for photographers, the festival programme, which runs from 26 April to 1 May, promises an eclectic mix of talks, screenings, portfolio reviews, peer critiques and workshops, led by many of our internationally renowned Academy Members. The Sony World Photography Awards winners’ exhibition will stay open until 22 May 2011. Tickets to the festival and exhibition are available via www.worldphoto.org from 4 February 2011.

The winners of the Professional categories will be announced on Thursday 27 April at the Sony World Photography Awards ceremony. For the first time this will be held at the Odeon Leicester Square in London having been in Cannes, France in previous years. Also on the night, the winner of the coveted L’Iris D’Or / Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year, will be announced. They will receive $25,000 and professional Sony camera equipment. The overall winner of the Open competition will receive a $5,000 cash prize as well as Sony camera equipment. The final presentation of the night will be in honour of the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography.

A number of tickets to the Sony World Photography Awards ceremony will be available to the public. Tickets, starting at £22, are available via www.worldphoto.org from 4 February.

Key dates
4 February: Tickets for Sony World Photography Awards and World Photography Festival go on sale
8 March: Outstanding Contribution to Photography Announced
22 March: Open competition category winners announced
27 April: Gala awards ceremony at Odeon Leicester Square in London.
Announcement of Professional category winners, Open competition Photographer of the Year, and L’Iris D’Or / Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year
26 April – 22 May: World Photography Awards Festival (26 April – 1 May) and Exhibition at Somerset House

Professional shortlisted photographers
In each category the judges could select up to three finalist photographers and up to seven additional shortlist photographers. From the finalists, the winners plus 2nd and 3rd place will be chosen and announced at the awards ceremony on 27 April.

Photographers are listed alphabetically.

PHOTOJOURNALISM & DOCUMENTARY

Honorary judging committee: Chair, Elisabeth Biondi (US), Visuals Editor, The New Yorker Magazine; Pedro Meyer (Mexico), photographer and founder of ZoneZero: Stephen Mayes (US), Managing Director, VII Photo Agency; Rena Effendi (Azerbaijan), award-winning social documentary photographer.

Current Affairs

Finalists:

• Javier Arcenillas (Spain)
• Robin Hammond (New Zealand) / Panos Picutres
• Ahmad Masood, (Afghanistan) / Reuters

Shortlisted:

• Filip Daniel (Poland)
• William Daniels(France)
• Adam Dean (United Kingdom)
• Giulio Di Sturco (Italy)
• Emiliano Larizza (Italy)
• Angelos Tzortzinis (Greece)

Contemporary Issues

Finalists:

• Javier Arcenillas (Spain)
• Balazs Gardi (Hungary) / basetrack.org
• Christian Lutz (Switzerland) / Agence VU

Shortlisted:

• David Chancellor (United Kingdom)
• Sebastian Liste (Spain)
• Anastasia Taylor-Lind (United Kingdom)
• Riccardo Venturi (Spain)

People

Finalists:

• Alejandro Chaskielberg (Argentina)
• Lucia Herrero (Spain)
• Denis Rouvre (France)

Shortlisted:

• Mathieu Asselin (France)
• Jodi Bieber (South Africa)
• Tommaso Bonaventura (Italy)
• Espen Rasmussen (Norway)
• Martin Roemers (Netherlands)
• Alnis Stakle (Latvia) / Photographer ru
• Hormis Tharakan (India)

Sport

Finalists:

• Javier Arcenillas (Spain)
• Palmer + Pawel (United Kingdom)
• Pavel Wolberg (Israel)

Shortlisted:

• Dilip Bhatia (India)
• Alexey Bushov (Russian Federation)
• Viktor Fischer (Czech Republic)
• Radek Kalhous (Czech Republic)
• Alex Kudenko (Russian Federation)
• Vladimir Pomortsev (Russian Federation)
• Bernd Seydel (Germany)

Arts and Culture

Finalists:

• Tommaso Bonaventura (Italy)
• Amit Madheshiya (India)
• Mahesh Shantaram (India)

Shortlisted:

• Jacek Świerczyński (Poland)
• Fabio Cuttica (Italy)
• William Daniels (France)
• Radek Kalhous (Czech Republic)
• Spencer Murphy (United Kingdom)
• Wojciech Grzedzinski Bartek Sadowski (Poland)
• Les Slesnick (United States)

COMMERCIAL

Honorary judging committee: Chair, Mike Trow (UK), Photo Editor, British Vogue; RJ Muna (US), photographer; Terri Manducca (UK), photographers’ agent; Elizabeth Zeschin (UK), photographer.

Campaign

Finalists:

• Richard Bailey (United Kingdom)
• Adam Hinton (United Kingdom)
• Tomg Meng (China)

Shortlisted:

• Kaveh Baghdadchi (Iran)
• Helen de Vries (Netherlands)
• Helen Doick (Australia)
• Fernando Bayona Gonzãlez (Spain)
• Anke Luckmann (Germany)
• Gustavo Millon (Chile)
• Dzmitry Rusak (Belarus)

Travel

Finalists:

• Javier Arcenillas (Spain)
• Andrew McConnell (Ireland) / Panos Pictures
• Liz Loh-Taylor (Australia)

Shortlisted:

• Gmb Akash (Bangladesh)
• Celia de Coca (Spain)
• Charlie Mahoney (United States)
• Raza Milani (Iran)
• Jehad Nga (United States)
• Aga Pajor (Poland)
• Helmut Wachtarczyk (Germany)

Lifestyle

Finalists:

• Frank Bayh & Steff Rosenberger-Ochs (Germany)
• Frabrizio Cestari (Italy)
• Saja Seus (Germany)

Shortlisted:

• Radek Burda (Czech Republic)
• Lukas Maximilian Hueller (Austria)
• Tanya Ilina (Russia)
• Alessandro Puccinelli (Italy)
• Thomas Steuer (Germany)
• Zbigniew Szczerbetka (Poland)
• Izabela Urbaniak (Poland)

Still Life

Shortlisted:

• Joel Devlin (united Kingdom)
• Adrian Samson (United Kingdom)
• Carsten Klein (Germany)
• Alessandro Puccinelli (Italy)
• Julia Unkel (Germany)

Fashion

Shortlisted:

• Liam Arthur (United Kingdom)
• Marcus Bleasdale (Norway)
• Patrizia Doubek (United Kingdom)
• Martina Giammaria (Italy)
• Tobias Hutzler (United States)
• Dejan Kutic (Croatia)
• Adrian Loh (Singapore)
• Elizaveta Porodina (Germany)
• Tomasz Slupski (Poland)
• Jack Younger (Australia)

FINE ART

Honorary judging committee: Chair, Francis Hodgson (UK) Photo Critic, Financial Times; Liu Heung Shing (Beijing), Author and Pulitzer Prize winning photographer; Julia Fullerton-Batten (Germany/UK), an established photographer with a worldwide reputation.

Architecture

Finalists:

• Frank + Steff Bayh +Rosenberger-Ochs (Germany)
• Frank Meyl (Germany)
• Alnis Stakle (Latvia)

Shortlisted:

• Marcus Buck (Germany)
• Bayerl Günther (Germany)

Portraiture

Finalists:

• Willaume Alain (France)
• David Kretschmer (Germany)
• Paolo Verzone (Italy) / Agence VU

Shortlisted:

• Liam Arthur (United Kingdom)
• Abel Ruiz de Leon Trespando (Spain)
• Bogdan Gîrbovan (Romania)
• Kai-Uwe Gundlach (Germany)
• Amir Hossein Keihani (Islamic Republic of Iran)
• Haylee Lee (Republic of Korea)
• Leonardo Liberman (Argentina)

Landscape

Finalists :

• Florence Iff (Switzerland)
• Guido Castagnoli (Italy) / Periscope-Creative Berlin
• Frank Day (United States)

Shortlisted:

• Misha Japaridze (Greece)
• Alexander Gronsky (Latvia)
• Marissa Rocke (United States)
• Thomas Steuer (Germany)
• Daniel Traub (United States)
• Aleksandra Wojcik (United Kingdom)

Still Life

Finalists:

• Charles Emerson (United Kingdom)
• Peter Franck (Germany)
• Renhui Zhao (Singapore)

Shortlisted:

• KIrill Golovchenko (Germany)
• Olaf Kreinsen (Germany)
• Andrzej Maciejewski (Canada)
• Goutal / Leriche Vincent / Olivia (France)
• Jasper White (United Kingdom)

Conceptual

Finalists:

• Ana Cop (Canada)
• Zhongyin Gao (China)
• Paul Gisbrecht (Germany)

Shortlisted:

• Meghan Boody (United States)
• Isaac Contreras (Mexico)
• Nerea Martinez de Lecea (United Kingdom)
• Mark French (United Kingdom)
• Vincent Vittecoq (Germany)
• Malaïka Weber (Switzerland)

Open shortlisted photographers

In each category judges were able to select up to ten images.

Action

• Robert Günthe (Germany)
• Chan Kwok Hung (Hong Kong) (two entries)
• James Kydd (South Africa)
• Federico Modica (Italy)
• Anton Mukhametchin (Russian Federation)
• Stanislaw Pytel (Poland)
• Huu Tri Tran (France)
• Alex Goh Chun Seong (Malaysia)
• Lee Sie (United States)

After Dark

• Aneek Anwar (Bangladesh)
• Juergen Buergin (Germany)
• Marcos Calamato (United States)
• Atle Gaarder (Sweden)
• Kostadin Luchansky (Angola)
• Chumlong Nilkon (Thailand)
• Dael Oates (United States)
• Bibek Paul (India)
• L. Ranieri Jr)Iberê (Brazil)
• Ekaterina Solovieva (Germany)

Architecture

• Urs Albrecht (Switzerland)
• Rob Cherry (United Kingdom)
• Rafal Marcinkiewicz (United Kingdom)
• Andras Neiser (Finland)
• Alexander Ossia (Germany)
• Bjoern Pretzel (Germany)
• Marc Siewior (Germany)
• Marek Troszczynski (United Kingdom)
• Reginald Van de Velde (Belgium)
• Wolfgang Weinhardt (Germany)

Arts & Culture

• Aislinn Clifford (United Kingdom)
• Matt Coppin (Canada)
• Hubert Januar (Indonesia)
• Veselina Kertikova (China)
• Piotr Krysiak (Poland)
• Samarendranath Mandal (India)
• Javier Martin (Spain)
• Susana Righi (Argentina)
• Ollie Smith (United Kingdom)
• Alam Syah (Indonesia)

Fashion

• Gde Wira Brahmana (Indonesia)
• Stefania Cruceru (Romania)
• Edina Csoboth (Hungary)
• Nick FitzPatrick (Australia)
• Tomek Jankowski (Poland)
• William Lukaitis (Australia)
• Kimberley Mennen (Australia)
• Jaroslav Svoboda (Czech Republic)
• Madalina Toderascu (Romania)
• Marina Adyrkhaeva (Russian Federation)

Nature & Wildlife

• Alex Bernasconi (Italy)
• Antoine Beyeler (Switzerland)
• Stephan Fürnrohr (Germany)
• Cedric Favero (Switzerland)
• Andiyan Lutfi (Indonesia)
• Luca Neve (United Kingdom)
• Dmitry Miroshnikov (Russian Federation)
• Kieran O'Connor (Australia)
• Nenad Saljic (Croatia)
• Tanja Zech (Germany)

Panoramic

• Anton Hazewinkel (China)
• Fabian Sixtus Körner (Germany)
• Gareth Kingdon (United Kingdom)
• David Millard (United Kingdom)
• Andrew Scriven (United Kingdom)
• Sergiu Sechel (Romania)
• Jadranko Silic (Australia)
• Rana Harfoush (Egypt)
• Ignacio Tejerina (Spain)
• Wolfgang Weinhardt (Germany)

People

• Peter Dazeley (United Kingdom)
• Paul Dooley (United Kingdom)
• Chan Kwok Hung (Hong Kong)
• Kal Khogali (Belgium)
• Katerina Lomonosov (Israel)
• Petar Popovic (Croatia)
• Eugene Reshetov (United States)
• Raghuranjan Sarkar (India)
• Danny Cohen (Australia)
• Gundega Sundew (Latvia)

• James Chong (Singapore)
• Pascal Fiechter (Switzerland)
• Arup Ghosh (India)
• Christoph Herby (Benin)
• Martin Hudak (Slovakia)
• Prasad Mahale (India)
• Carlos Henrique Reinesch (Brazil)
• Syaza Mohammed Shakharulain (Malaysia)
• Domenico Chiapperini (Netherlands)
• Viktorija Vaisvilaite Skirutiene

Travel

• James Chong (Singapore)
• Valarie Curty (Switzerland)
• Sauro Fiorani (Italy)
• David Lazar (Australia)
• Yap Wai Leong (Malaysia)
• Glenn Losack MD (United States)
• Christopher Martin (Canada
• Nara Pratama (Indonesia)
• Saeed Salem (Saudi Arabia)
• Wolfgang Weinhardt (Germany)

Created by the World Photography Organisation, the World Photography Awards, sponsored by Sony, launched in 2007. The World Photography Organisation supports professional, amateur and student photography, lending a global platform for the photographic industry to communicate, converge and showcase current trends in Photojournalism, Fine Art and Commercial photography. Delivering various initiatives and programmes across this global community under the “World Photography” brand, these programmes involve the photographer in commercial, cultural and educational activities within the many industry sectors, whilst also creating cultural activities for the public to participate in. Also currently included within the World Photography portfolio are the World Photography Student Focus Competition; the World Photography Festival, the World Photography Focus Programme and the World Photography Collection.

The WPO website - www.worldphoto.org features an online gallery and news section. It also includes comprehensive information about the Awards, the categories, a current list of World Photographic Academy members, and key dates.

iStockphoto offers easy, affordable inspiration with millions of vetted, royalty-free photos, illustrations, video, audio and Flash® files. Using the most advanced search in the business, customers download a file every second from a collection of more than seven million files for business, marketing and personal projects. iStockphoto started in 2000, pioneering the micropayment photography business model, and has become one of the most successful and profitable user-generated content sites in the world. iStockphoto pays out more than $1.7 million weekly in artist royalties. iStockphoto is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Getty Images.

About Sony:
Sony is a leading global innovator of audio, video, communications and information technology products for both the consumer and professional markets. Sony is renowned for its audio-visual products, such as the BRAVIA™ LCD high-definition television, Cyber-shot™ digital camera, Handycam® camcorder, “α” (pronounced Alpha) digital SLR camera, and Walkman® MP3 player as well as its VAIO™ personal computers and high-definition (HD) professional broadcast equipment, highlighted by the XDCAM® HD. Offering a complete end-to-end HD value chain and with its electronics, music, pictures, game and online businesses, Sony is one of the world’s leading digital entertainment brands, employing approximately 170,000 people worldwide.

Through its long-term football partnerships as an official sponsor of the UEFA Champions League until 2012, Official FIFA Partner until 2014 and global sponsor of the FIFA World Cup™ in 2010 and 2014, Sony is inspiring a sense of excitement for the millions of football fans around the world.

For more information on Sony Europe, please visit http://www.sony-europe.com and http://www.sony-europe.com/presscenter

“Sony”, “WALKMAN”, “VAIO”, “Cyber-shot”, “Handycam”, “α”, “BRAVIA” and “XDCAM” are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sony Corporation. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.