FIFTEEN AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHERS SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2016 SONY WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD

Entries from America up 57 % on 2015
Record number of entries – 230,103 images, 33% increase on 2015
Open and Youth category winners revealed 29th March
Overall winners revealed 21st April

London, 23 February 2016: Fifteen American photographers are today named on the shortlist of the world’s biggest photography competition, the Sony World Photography Awards. They are now competing to win their category and the over all Professional, Open and Youth photographer of the Year titles plus a share of the $30,000 (USD) prize, the winners will be announced at a Gala Ceremony in London 21st April.In addition to the fifteen American photographers, additional seven photographers of other nationalities, based in the US, are named on the shortlist.

Selected by an expert panel of judges (full list here) the shortlisted photographers are:

Professional competition
Rob Gregory, Campaign / Ed Kashi, Campaign / Vladimir Frumin, Conceptual / Andrew Burton, Current Affairs / Brendan Hoffman, Current Affairs / Stephanie Sinclair, Daily Life / Kiliii Fish, Still Life / Giles Clarke (British), Campaign / Jason Koxvold (British), Current Affairs / Lucy Nicholson (British), Environment / Max Knight(British), Landscape / Zhe Zhu (Chinese), Environment / Lawrence Sumulong (Filipino), Conceptual / Julien Roubinet (French), Still Life

Open competition
Vincent Frascello, Low Light / Mark Fulinara, Split Second / Anasuya Mandal (Indian), Travel / Swee Choo Oh (Malaysian), Arts and Culture / Filip Wolak (Polish), Architecture / Mickael Szymanski (French), Enhanced

Youth competition
Lake Lewis, Environment / Charlie Burr, Environment / Sam Delaware, Portrait / Gina Ienopoli, Portrait / Aaliyah Snider, Portrait / Arno Goetz, Portrait / Leena Meyers(German), Culture

The shortlisted images were selected from a record-breaking 230,103 entries from 186 countries, the highest number of entries in the awards’ nine year history and 33% increase on 2015. The total number of entries received by the Sony World Photography Awards since its launch in 2007 has now surpassed 1 million images, reinforcing the awards’ position as one of the most respected and influential photography competitions in the world.

: There are more than 300 people that with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus blue unit, representing 25 different countries and speaking everything from Russian to Arabic to Guarani. A few travel in cars and trailers, but a majority, 270, live on the trains. Most come from multigeneration circus families, to the extent that collectively, the circus staff represents thousands of years of circus history. The men and women all say that only circus people like them can understand the lifestyle. They spend 44 weeks of the year traveling an average of 20,000 miles from coast to coast on a train that is 61 cars ”a full mile” long. It is a life of close quarters and rigorous training, a life that many of the performers began in childhood. Their job is to convince the world that the circus still matters.

: A worker walks through farm fields in Los Banos, California, United States, May 5, 2015. California water regulators on Tuesday adopted the state’s first rules for mandatory cutbacks in urban water use as the region’s catastrophic drought enters its fourth year. Urban users will be hardest hit, even though they account for only 20 percent of state water consumption, while the state’s massive agricultural sector, which the Public Policy Institute of California says uses 80 percent of human-related consumption, has been exempted. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY – RTX1BQUX

: Asiah Khatu (22), a Rohingya refugee from Myanmar, at a temporary shelter in Bayeun, East Aceh, Indonesia. On May 20th 2015, around 400 refugees and asylum-seekers stranded at sea for months were rescued by Indonesian Fisherman in Julok, Aceh province, Indonesia.

: Dora Maar (Henriette Theodora Markovic) was an independent and anti-conformist woman and photographer. She met Picasso in 1936. The painter kept her away from photography and pushed her into painting (a field in which he was the unquestioned king). Living in the shadow of the greatest artist of the time, Maar suffered from self-doubt and depression throughout her nine-year liaison with Picasso. The painter defined her as the most intelligent of all of his women and the one that made him laugh the most. else. Despite this, he always pictured her as the crying woman. Maar found herself abandoned by Picasso, and for this reason suffered of a nervous breakdown; she subsequently undertook electroshock therapy for three weeks in a psychiatric hospital. She said “after Picasso there is only God”.

: In the summer holidays at sea are a time of joy and fun for all ages. If we do not we looked at the different costumes, the scenes are the same as always. Sometimes the elderly back to be boys, parents make jokes to the children, often breaking social labels, creating new relationships. Stopping to look at the different behavior of people on a pier is hilarious and often allows you to freeze the moments in memory.

: In Paris, when the sun is back, the «bronzeur» goes along the Seine. Wearing clothes or almost naked, he is looking for the perfect spot to enjoy the sun. Specifically, he is looking for a bench that will allow the best conditions. Usually he has brought a towel to avoid contact between him and the bench Its in the early afternoon that the «bronzeurs» settles. Its the perfect moment to get a perfect tan. They are very relaxed, and waiting for the sun to do its job.

: Beached humans on unknown shores

: Home of 40 thousand Buddhist monks in Sichuan province

: If one is thinking about countries being successful in boxing, just a few will have Ghana in mind. But Ghana produced a couple of world champions in boxing – the most famous one being Azumah Nelson. The weird fact about boxing in Ghana is all world champions are from Bukom, a small neighborhood of Accra. Bukom is a poor suburb, most people work as fishermen. But boxing here has a long tradition – it is the second nature of the people as many say. Hundreds of years ago, the Ga-People, an ethnic group who lives mainly in Accra, developed their own way of fighting. Due to the British influence during colonization, the Ga came in touch with boxing. Since then boxing is the most famous sport in Bukom. Nowadays boxing is much more than a sport, it is a way to escape poverty and everyday problems. Many kids and juveniles dream of being a professional boxer in the US or Europe. They fight for their dreams, literally.

: Portraits of the silver medal winners just after loosing their final at the Zealand boxing Championships held in Copenhagen in March.

: KAZAN, RUSSIA – JULY 28: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been converted to black and white.) A member of the Mexico team competes in the Women’s Team Free Synchronised Swimming Preliminary on day four of the 16th FINA World Championships at the Kazan Arena on July 28, 2015 in Kazan, Russia. (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)

: The atmosphere is good and there is loud music playing in the gym in Copenhagen where the elite girls train gymnastics 20 hours a week. You have to if you want to participate at the elite level. And they do. As a rule of thumb you have to put in at least 10.000 hours of training to compete internationally. Doing gymnastics you primarily fight yourself. Your fears, doubts and pain. But the youngsters help and encourage each other. So it might be a lone battle. But they fight it side by side.

: Until the 60s, South Korea was almost a mediaeval country, poor and underdeveloped. After just 50 years, South Korea is now one of the most advanced countries in the world. The rush towards modernity has been fostered by imposing a huge sense of competition and a painstaking effort to reach scolastic, aesthetic and professional perfection. Youngsters grow up by keeping in mind the same ideals and future aims: get the best marks to get the best jobs. At the same time, the aesthetic models are totally conformed, obtained through a massive us of plastic surgery. The Country pushes the young generation towards an alienating standardization, the exact opposite of what happens in Western Countries, where success comes from one’s ability to emerge from the mass. The collateral effects of this rapid social, educational, economical, aesthetic and technological evolution“ achieved through high competition and rivalry are psychological outbursts such as social isolation and stress that sometimes bring to alcoholism and suicide (South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world: 43 per day).

: This series represent exploration of the most extreme and far cold-water seas, washing the coasts of Russia, because only few people in the world had chance to dive there. These seas are true pearls of nature, hiding mysteries and treasures not only for divers and scientists – there is another universe with it’s own aliens and fantastic creatures. These strange animals are mostly undescribed. Some of them are tiny, some are hidden because of their complete transparency, some are beautiful and gentle giants – in the underwater world you can find living things for the first time in the history of humanity, but they were there for millions of years. Modern diving and photo equipment give us a chance to reveal this beauty hidden in the dark.

: Coal used to be the gold of West Virginia, US. But then Obama came and new environmental regulations. Together with lower price on coal, it led to huge redundancies and the coal became a curse for many of the coal-cities in West Virginia. In 1940, 140.000 worked in the mountains, today only about 15.000 are left in the coal business. Town like Beckley and Mullens does not have many other sources of income. Drugs, pills, alcohol and violence is dominant many places, and young people are struggeling to find work, forcing many to move.

: In the 16th century Solvichegodsk was found as a solt mine. The name of the city is formed with russian word “sol” wich means salt, and the name of the nearby river Vichegda. In that times, salt was qite expensive and valuable, what made city prosperous. Since that time salt had lost it’s meaning to the russian economy. Today no one is intrested in Solvichegodsk salt, and the unique therapeutic mud is the last money resourse of the city, because most of the production shutted down after breakdown of USSR. Since 1992 till now, Solvichegodsk population had reduced by half. After breakdown of the communism, Solvichegodsk as many small towns in russia is stuck in it’s past. Despite everything, people in Solvichegodsk still belive in their positive future, and wait for wind of change.

: We’ve arrived in El Salvador to see for ourselves the human effects of the violence that is rapidly making the country the deadliest place in the world. After a one-year dip in the murder rate following a truce negotiated between criminal gangs and the government of Mauricio Funes in 2012, the killings have spiked again this year, with a projected murder rate for 91 per 100 thousand for 2015. This means nearly 6000 people will be killed this year. According to police statistics, so far 2859 people have already been murdered. Much of El Salvador’s violence is attributed to gang members. The prisoners we met are members of the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS13, a transnational criminal gang which originated on the streets of Los Angeles along with its main rival, the Barrio 18 gang. Its founders were refugees from El Salvador’s 12-year civil war, which killed over 75,000 people. Under the Clinton and Bush administrations in the late 90s and early 2000s Central American gang members were deported back en masse to weak post-war nations unable to accommodate them.

: These images were created for the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago’s Adaptive Sports Program and the RIC Hornets wheelchair basketball team.

: The story of a big unload In France we throw away approximately 365kg of waste per person, per year. Although, it is difficult to know the actual quantity when our waste is being collected every week. #365, Unpacked is the result of a four years work during which the photographer has stopped throwing away his recycled waste, and has collected it instead. 70m3 of packaging has been collected to create the base of the project, which has been invading the daily life of the protagonists of this photographic series. This “waste bank” includes 1600 milk bottles, 4800 toilet rolls, and even 800kg of newspapers. The photographer has decided to sort all the collected waste to photograph it separately and by category. Each photo of this series has been set up within a live installation and has been created in real conditions without any photo editing software. Beyond the graphic dimension, the accumulation of waste accentuates the gap between the human and his environment. If today we can witness an evolution of the consciousness, our strongest argument is economic as the cost of this packaging is two-fold. Firstly, the cost is covered by the consumer during the purchase and secondly, it will be the same consumer who will pay for the collection and the treatment of the packaging once used. Between making us question ecology and our way of consuming, #365, Unpacked reminds us that the best waste is the waste that we, as humans don’t produce.

: DC 2234.55 001 trophy lion, springbok and spotted hyena, hunting convention, reno, nevada, USA-from the series ‘Lion’-David Chancellor At annual conventions in the US hunters will book hunts, select animals, professional hunters, and taxidermist services. Here at the Safari Club International Convention in Reno, Nevada, USA, a taxidermist displays his work from a clients previous trip to Africa. There are now more captive Lions in South Africa than wild ones; approx 8000 compared to 2000 living in the wild. Many of these animals are reared specifically to be shot and owned by wealthy tourists from Europe and North America. Between 2001-2006 1830 Lion trophies were exported from South Africa, in the following five years 4062 trophies were exported from SA an increase of 122%. As result of this increase in 2011 the South African government effectively banned the practise of ‘canned hunting’ by requiring an animal to roam free for two years before it could be hunted, severley restricting breeders and hunters’ profitability. But lion breeders challenged the policy in South Africa’s courts and a high court judge eventually ruled that such restrictions were ‘not rational’. The number of trophy hunted animals has since soared. Demand from the Far East is also driving profits for lions breeders. In 2001, two lions were exported as “trophies” to China, Laos and Vietnam; in 2011, 70 lion trophies were exported to those nations. While the trade in tiger parts is now illegal, demand for lion parts for traditional Asian medicine is soaring. In 2009, five lion skeletons were exported from South Africa to Laos; in 2011, it was 496. The legal export of lion bones and whole carcasses has also soared. Breeders argue it is better that hunters shoot a captive-bred lion than further endanger the wild populations, but conservationists and animal welfare groups dispute this. Wild populations of lions have declined by 80% in 20 years, so the rise of lion farms and canned hunting

: Editorial for germans Stern magazine, Jewlery special.

: Flesh Love Returns Men and women are attracted to each other and try to become one. This fundamental desire carries an energy that affects all matter in the world. I wonder what is the reason we have to make such an effort to become one. Possibly we were originally one. Since I believe this, I intend to visualize this power of love by adhering and unifying couples. The closer the distance between them, the stronger the power. The law of gravity also shows the pull is stronger when two objects become closer; and glue, too, is stronger when it is applied thinner. To be adhered shows their strength. I decided to vacuum-pack couples as a method to express coherence. Because the couple cannot breathe in the bag, the vacuum-packed state can only be kept for several seconds. This is why I chose photography to capture these pieces. I have begun the project which takes a shrinked couple at the most important place for them. I make them to choose a plece for shooting.There is a person who chooses the home where a life is being always done together, too, there would be a person who chooses the workplace they knew each other and a person who chooses the location of the memory, too. Every kind of place will be space of love by being couple.

: I want to explore how self portraiture for many people has become an obsession, and how presence in a self portrait situation is absent, or becomes a peculiar part of the selfie act. This can develop absurd situations, and my project is a play around such situations.

: On the Philosopher As an expression of absurdity in an absurd world, eruption of freedom in skimpy landscapes, anarchic dancing in a shabby architecture, the pictures of “The Philosopher” are the result of improvised events, born out of the search “at the whim of improvised journeys“ of places favorable to disruption, to reinvention. The settings are those of the institutional planning. Confined in their useful role, they become inhuman when pushed by. The pictures are Epectase brings back the body to it, fitted with a bizarre sensuality, both Old France style and futuristic. Between dada poetry and punk controversy, the body that is staged here wants to wake up life. Absurdity in an absurd world, eruption of freedom in skimpy landscapes, anarchic dancing in a shabby architecture, the clichè of the philosopher are the result of improvised events, born of research at the discretion of improvised trips the two artists.

: In this project, Alberto Alicata, traces the history of photography, image iconic realized by the great masters, resorting to the use of a symbol of contemporary Western culture: Barbie. Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Guy Bourdin, David Lachapelle, Mario Testino are some of the names which Alicata honors, studying carefully chosen shots and recreating a set to measure Barbie rebuilt in detail the limits of the obsessive precision, the original that inspired it, in order to strengthen the authenticity and strength of timeless images, now become part of our visual memory and intended to be timeless. Intuition playful operate this simulation, using one of the most imitated, idolized, collected and studied which is renewed in every historical period, this production puts in a dimension in the making, is intended to be enriched with new images, and more opportunity to quote unexpected suggestions.

: For the Ekondas pygmies in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the most important moment in the life of a woman is the birth of her first child. The young mother is called walé (primiparous nursing mother). A walè carries both responsibilities and status: she returns to her parents, where she remains secluded for a period of 2 to 5 years, and must adhere to several strict taboos during this time. The ritual is highly competitive, as it’s about having more prestige and power than other walé, so she takes on a nickname to differentiate herself from rivals. Every day the young woman engages in an elaborate beautification ritual to draw attention to herself. She spreads a red preparation, a mixture of powder of ngola wood with palm oil, over her own body. The sophisticated hairstyles, made of a mud like paste, a mixture of ashes from bopokoloko leaves and palm oil, are yet another way for walé to flaunt their uniqueness. Actresses act and stage appearance.

: Fashion designer Louison Mbeya watching the fashion show. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is known for its war, rebels and poverty, but when it comes to style and fashion it’s capital Kinshasa is an inspiration for many people on the African continent. Here fashion is not the motor powering the rapidly growing economy, but rather an effect of this; the current economic and political circumstances are the flywheel that is allowing something that has always been in the population’s DNA to flourish.Kinshasa, Paris of Africa 2025 is part of an ongoing multi media project, named Future Cities. For this project journalist Stephanie Bakker and photographer Yvonne Brandwijk discover the next generation of cities. Kinshasa’s first launch and print date was on July 15 2015 at the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant.

: Miami Beach A showgirl, during her performance in ocean drive

: The Pools series is a study of water, one of the most precious resources for life on our planet. The artistic approach of photographer Stephan Zirwes is to show how the important resource is in contrast between being the consummate location for entertainment and the incredible waste of drinking water “not only for being used in private pools but also the trend to privatise what is a public asset and use it for commercial reasons. Public pools can still be a symbol for the importance that water should be free accessible to everyone. The clean formal language and the simple design of the pictures focus our interest on this newsworthy issue with elegance and almost playful. A deep dive into the blue as Zirwes copied parts of the original pool tiles and enlarged them in a simple, visible way to create a kind of mount in patterns.

: The church of the Holy Trinty in the village of Maryino, Leningrad region. The church was built in 1831 and closed down in 1936. Russia, 2015

: A fisherman is farming the sea in between the bamboo rods constructed for aquaculture off the coast in southern China.

: Image was taken in Bali during Melasti Festival. This Festival is conducted once a year in conjunction with Nyepi or Silent Day. These young girls were waiting for their turn to perform. They looked stunning with their bright coloured costumes and heavy make-up on, however the expression on each of the girls’ face especially the yawning girl gives this image an extra ‘ummpph’.

: Reindeer farmer kids in Mongolia

: open air

: Taken in Cannes, France 2015. I took this photograph on Promenade de la Croisette, during my summer holiday. Whilst everyone is mostly new wealth, this woman stood out, as she is relatively modest in appearance, and accompanied by a dog, as well as being elderly. I found it amusing how the dog shared the same facial expression as the dog.

: I came across this juvenile flying fish while diving in open water near Tubbataha Reefs, Philippines. Juvenile flying fish are often spotted hovering just below the surface, hiding inside natural or manmade debris, drifting the ocean currents. Juvenile flying fish can be attracted by light at night, but during the day they tend to swim away as soon a diver approaches. It took me hours to get close enough and this photograph was taken just when the sun was setting, beautifully illuminating the clouds at the horizon.

: Bering sea. Commander islands. Baby fur seal

: The last five days of Kartika month are known as Bhisma-Panacaka. Grandfather Bhisma fasted for these five days, preparing to give up his life. However one observes Kartika-vrata, he should intensify it for the last five days. The best way to observe the Kartika-vrata is to abstain from eating grains for the whole month, and to take only milk or water for the last five days. If one eats grains during the month, he should avoid them for the last five days. Also, one should only eat once a day

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