Professional winners announced at Sony World Photography Awards

The Sony World Photography Awards were announced at the Sony World Photography Awards Gala ceremony at the Hilton Hotel in London’s Park Lane last night. The professional category winners are:

PHOTOJOURNALISM & DOCUMENTARY

Current Affairs
• Winner: Donald Weber (Canada) / VII PHOTO
• 2nd: Fernando Alfonso Brito Lizárraga (Mexico)
• 3rd: Rémi Ochlik (France) / IP3 Press

Contemporary Issues
• Winner: Kasia Bielska (Poland)
• 2nd: Gustavo Jononovich (Argentina)
• 3rd: Alessandro Grassani (Italy)

People
• Winner: Simon Norfolk (United Kingdom)
• 2nd: Maja Daniels (Sweden)
• 3rd: Alejandro Cartagena (Mexico)

Sport
• Winner: Palmer + Pawel (United Kingdom)
• 2nd: Pawel Kopczynski (Poland)
• 3rd: Andrew McConnell (Ireland)

Arts and Culture
• Winner: Rob Hornstra (Netherlands)
• 2nd: Mattia Vacca (Italy)
• 3rd: Anastasia Taylor-Lind (United Kingdom)

Nature & Wildlife
• Winner: Jacek Kusz (Poland)
• 2nd: David Chancellor (United Kingdom) / Institute
• 3rd: Palani Mohan (India)

COMMERCIAL
Campaign
• Winner: Peter Franck (Germany) / Büro stoltenhoff
• 2nd: Laura Pannack (United Kingdom)
• 3rd: Javier Arcenillas (Spain)

Travel
• Winner: Luis Henry Agudelo Cano (Colombia)
• 2nd: Peter Franck (Germany)
• 3rd: Jan Brykczynski (Poland)

Fashion
• Winner: Peter Franck (Germany)
• 2nd: Elizaveta Porodina (Germany)
• 3rd: Jayden Tang (China)

FINE ART

Architecture
• Winner: David Airob (Spain)
• 2nd: Simon Norfolk (United Kingdom)
• 3rd: Igor Chirikov (Russian Federation)

Portraiture
• Winner: Irina Werning (Argentina)
• 2nd: Paolo Marchetti (Italy)
• 3rd: Lei Liu (China)

Landscape
• Winner: Mitch Dobrowner (United States)
• 2nd: Lee Chee Wai (Malaysia)
• 3rd: Rona Chang (United States)

Still Life
• Winner: Helen Thompson (United Kingdom)
• 2nd: Renan Cepeda (Brazil)
• 3rd: Rena Effendi (Azerbaijan) / INSTITUTE

Conceptual
• Winner: Manuel Geerinck (Belgium)
• 2nd: Cristina De Middel (Spain)
• 3rd: Luis Mallo (United States)

American photographer Mitch Dobrowner won the L’Iris d’Or . Read the full story here.

The Open Photographer of the Year title was awarded to Tobias Bräuning for his innovative and striking image Dancing Queen, in the split second category, a new category this year. Inspiration for his image came from pictures of simple water drops on a German DSLR internet forum. The 29 year old software engineer from Germany was awarded a $5,000 cash prize as well as Sony’s latest digital imaging camera equipment.

Other announcements on the night included the professional category winners, covering the newly introduced Nature & Wildlife category alongside others such as Current Affairs and Travel. Among the winners are Peter Franck from Germany who, returning from his victory at the 2010 Awards, and after being shortlisted in four categories, triumphed in the Commercial campaign and fashion categories, and the UK’s Simon Norfolk, winner of the Photojournalism & Documentary People category, who is the author of books such as Bleed – based on the aftermath of war in Bosnia.