The overall winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2024 were revealed on April 18 at a special gala ceremony held in London. Now in its 17th year, the Awards’ ceremony is a major annual moment recognizing the best photography in the world today, and celebrating the images and stories that have resonated with global audiences over the past year. The winning, finalist and shortlisted images are on view at the Sony World Photography Awards 2024 exhibition at Somerset House, London from April 19.
The prestigious Photographer of the Year title was awarded to Juliette Pavy for her series Spiralkampagnen: Forced Contraception and Unintended Sterilisation of Greenlandic Women. Pavy won a $25,000 cash prize, a range of Sony digital imaging equipment, and the opportunity to present a new body of work at the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 exhibition.
Additionally recognized at the gala ceremony were the overall winners of the Awards’ Open, Student and Youth competitions and this year’s Sustainability Prize winner. Championing photographers at different junctures of their careers, the Awards’ Open competition celebrates the power of a single image, whilst the Student and Youth Competitions spotlight the work of the next generation. Established last year, the Sustainability Prize platforms photographers highlighting a positive change for our planet.
The Sony World Photography Awards 2024 exhibition is on view at Somerset House, London from April 19–May 6, 2024. Among the most exciting photography events in London’s spring cultural calendar, this major exhibition features over 200 prints, and hundreds of additional images in digital displays from the winning and shortlisted photographers, and includes a retrospective of works by this year’s Outstanding Contribution to Photography recipient, Sebastião Salgado.
PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Spiralkampagnen: Forced Contraception and Unintended Sterilisation of Greenlandic Women by Juliette Pavy (France) is a documentary project exploring the severe and lasting impacts of the involuntary birth control campaign led by Danish authorities in Greenland in the 1960s and 1970s. This series examines the spiralkampagnen, in which several thousand Inuit women, some as young as 12, were implanted with intrauterine devices without their consent. The project traces the program’s origins through to the present day, including the ongoing investigation by the Danish government.
Placing the victims’ perspectives at the forefront, the narrative structure of Pavy’s project is shaped by these difficult and important reflections on the collective trauma experienced by a community. The series uses a variety of photographic formats; from situating shots of the city of Nuuk and its clinical spaces, to X-ray imagery and archival photographs of the young women involved, alongside recent portraits of victims and of doctors who worked in Greenland during and after the program, to the Danish parliamentarian investigating the spiralkampagnen in the present day.
Pavy said: “I am truly honored to be named the Photographer of the Year and for my work to be recognized among such a remarkable selection of projects and stories celebrated here tonight. With this Award I hope to give a voice to those who were silenced for almost half a century, and to all the women in the world who are constantly fighting for their rights. By telling this story, I want to raise awareness of the violence against Inuit women and the social and psychological repercussions of this forced contraception campaign, and the unintended sterilisation of many of its victims.”
PROFESSIONAL CATEGORY WINNERS
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
WINNER: Siobhán Doran (Ireland)
2nd Place: Karol Pałka (Poland)
3rd Place: Yaser Mohamad Khani (Islamic Republic of Iran)
CREATIVE
WINNER: Sujata Setia (United Kingdom)
2nd Place: Mackenzie Calle (United States)
3rd Place: Tine Poppe (Norway)
DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS
WINNER: Juliette Pavy (France)
2nd Place: Brent Stirton (South Africa)
3rd Place: Davide Monteleone (Italy)
ENVIRONMENT
WINNER: Mahé Elipe (France)
2nd Place: Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccinni (Italy)
3rd Place: Maurizio Di Pietro (Italy)
LANDSCAPE
WINNER: Eddo Hartmann (Netherlands)
2nd Place: Jim Fenwick (United Kingdom)
3rd Place: Fan Li (China Mainland)
PORTFOLIO
WINNER: Jorge Mónaco (Argentina)
2nd Place: Aly Hazzaa (Egypt)
3rd Place: Angelika Kollin (Estonia)
PORTRAITURE
WINNER: Valery Poshtarov (Bulgaria)
2nd Place: Adali Schell (United States)
3rd Place: Drew Gardner (United Kingdom)
SPORT
WINNER: Thomas Meurot (France)
2nd Place: Angelika Jakob (Germany)
3rd Place: Tommaso Pardini (Italy)
STILL LIFE
WINNER: Federico Scarchilli (Italy)
2nd Place: Peter Franck (Germany)
3rd Place: Beth Galton (United States)
WILDLIFE & NA
WINNER: Eva Berler (Greece)
2nd Place: Haider Khan (India)
3rd Place: Jasper Doest (Netherlands)
To find out more about this year's winning & finalist projects, visit worldphoto.org.
SUSTAINABILITY PRIZE
Kathleen Orlinsky (United States) was announced as this year’s Sustainability Prize winner for her series America’s First Wilderness and won a $5,000 cash prize. Orlinsky’s series looks at the landscape, wildlife and people of the Gila Wilderness of southeastern New Mexico, exploring the conservation efforts which have gone into maintaining the untouched natural environment and protecting the biodiversity of the area. Orlinsky’s project looks at the ways in which the people inhabiting the wilderness peacefully coexist with the nature around them, and promote the conservation of this space.
The Sustainability Prize is part of Creators for the Planet, a global year-round engagement program set by Creo and developed in collaboration with the United Nations Foundation and Sony Pictures, which recognises the stories, people and organizations whose actions highlight one of the United Nations’ environmental Sustainable Development Goals.
OPEN PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
The Open competition celebrates the power and dynamism of a single image. Winning photographs are chosen for their ability to communicate a remarkable visual narrative combined with technical excellence. Chosen from the 10 Open category winners, Liam Man (United Kingdom) is Open Photographer of the Year 2024 and the recipient of the $5,000 cash prize, Sony digital imaging equipment and international exposure. Liam Man won for his photograph Moonrise Sprites over Storr, depicting the well-known rock formation of the Old Man of Storr on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, lit by drone lights and the rising orange moon. Taken late at night, during a powerful blizzard, this image highlights the vast mountainous landscape and the striking winter sky.
STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
For this year’s Student competition, photography students were invited to submit a series of five to 10 images responding to the brief of Home, highlighting their personal perspectives on place, community, identity and belonging. Kayin Luys (Belgium) of LUCA School of Arts Sint Lukas Brussels has been awarded the title of Student Photographer of the Year, winning Sony digital imaging equipment worth €30,000 for his university. Luys’s series Don’t Trust Pretty Girls is an intimate portrait of his in-laws, highlighting the ways in which he has come to know his partner’s family, and has become part of their day-to-day traditions and rituals.
YOUTH PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
This year entrants to the Youth competition were invited to respond to the theme Through Your Eyes and share their unique understanding of the world around them. Selected from a shortlist of 10 photographers aged 19 and under, Daniel Murray (United Kingdom, 15 years-old) is the Youth Photographer of the Year, receiving Sony digital imaging kit and global exposure. Murray’s photograph of a solitary surfer on an empty Cornish beach captures the quiet atmosphere of the end of the summer season, and the expansive beach landscapes of the English seaside. Through its soft tones, the image captures the warm light of late summer.
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO PHOTOGRAPHY
This year’s Outstanding Contribution to Photography prize has been awarded to the esteemed photographer Sebastião Salgado. One of the most accomplished photographers working today, Sebastião Salgado has achieved international acclaim for his remarkable black-and-white compositions captured over a career spanning more than 50 years.
More than 40 images by the photographer will be on view at the Sony World Photography Awards 2024 exhibition at Somerset House. The selection, made by the photographer, highlights the key themes and milestones over the last five decades of his career, featuring works from his iconic early projects such as Gold (1986) and Workers (1993), and more recent bodies of work like Genesis (2011) and Amazônia (2019).
SONY WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2024 EXHIBITION
The Sony World Photography Awards 2024 exhibition opens at Somerset House, London from April 19–May 6 2024. In addition to the work of this year’s overall and category winners the Sony World Photography Awards exhibition features a solo presentation by the 2023 Photographer of the Year winner, Edgar Martins (Portugal).
The acclaimed photographer presents a selection of images from his series Anton’s hand is made of Guilt. No muscle or bone. He has a Gung-ho Finger and a Grief-stricken Thumb. Building on his winning project from 2023, Our War, this presentation showcases a long-term project of Martins’, commemorating the loss of his close friend, photojournalist Anton Hammerl, who was killed during the Libyan Civil War in 2011.
Simon Farrell
Publisher, Custom Media
