by Rachel Ogbu

The Sony World Photography Awards has announced its 2013 winners.

This year’s  Sony World Photography Awards now includes more competitions and awards than ever before, with each one appealing to photographers of different levels including amateurs and this year’s winners come from all over the globe including Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Chile and Romania.

It will be awesome to see some Nigerians feature on the winners list next year.

Through conducting a range of annual competitions, Sony World Photography Awards has a mission is to discover talent across many diverse fields of photography. “We support photographers beyond just receiving their award; featuring their work across the WPO website and in international exhibitions, offering unparalleled exposure through our annual marketing campaign and international media coverage, and publication inside the annual Sony World Photography Awards book,” a statement on their website reads.

Sony World Photography Awards is widely recognised as the leading global photographic awards programme in existence today.

Be inspired:

Open ‘Arts and Culture’ winner: Gilbert Yu, Hong Kong. ‘Fire Dragon of “Fung Shun”‘ was taken to document the annual ceremony which is held 15 days after the start of Lunar New Year. The ‘Fung Shun’ fire dragon dance sees men carry dragon sculptures with lit fireworks attached to it (Gilbert Yu, Hong Kong, Winner, Arts and Culture, Open Competition, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Youth ‘Portraits’ winner: Berta Vicente, Spain. A girl in red looks out of a dark building in ‘Ariadna in Urquinaona’ (Berta Vicente, Spain, Winner, Portraits, Youth Competition, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Open ‘Enhanced’ winner: Hoang Hiep Nguyen, Vietnam. A girl braves the elements in ‘Storm’ (Hoang Hiep Nguyen, Vietnam, Enhanced, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Open ‘Split Second’ winner: Matías Gálvez, Chile. Milk explodes in a striped red mug in ‘Splash’ (Matías Gálvez, Chile, Winner, Split Second, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Open ‘People’ winner: Hisatomi Tadahiko, Japan. A groom holds his bride’s shoes in ‘Wedding’. (Hisatomi Tadahiko, Japan, People, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Youth ‘Culture’ winner: Alecsandra Dragoi, Romania, shoots New Year’s Eve ‘Traditions’ in his home country (Alecsandra Dragoi, Romania, Winner, Culture, Youth Competition, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Open ‘Low light’ winner: Elmar Akhmetov, Kazakhstan. ‘Starry Tree’ was shot in the Mangystau region, Kazakhstan (Elmar Akhmetov, Kazakhstan, Low Light, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

 

3D winner: Matjaž Tancic, Slovenia wins the category with a photo of a home in Yixian, China (Matjaž Tancic, Slovenia, Winner, 3D competition, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Youth ‘Environment’ winner: Xu Wei Shou, Taiwan. ‘Nature’s fightback’ shows a house teetering on the edge of a cliff (Xu Wei Shou, Taiwan, Winner, Environment, Youth Competition, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)