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A fortnight ago on this blog we featured a series of photographs from the “#MobilePhotoNow” competition recently exhibited at Columbus Museum of Art. We continue in this edition on the recent announcement of the winners in the “Open”, “Youth”, and “Mobile” categories of the 2015 Sony World Photography Awards.
According to the organizers, a total of over 96,000 entries from all over the world were submitted. A huge range of subjects among the ten categories in the “Open” competition are: Architecture, Arts & Culture, Enhanced, Low Light, Nature & Wildlife, Panoramic, People, Smile, Split Second and Travel. In the “Youth” competition, for participants aged 19 and under, three categories were entered: Culture, Environment and Portraits. For the first time this year, a mobile phone competition was introduced in recognition of the increased accessibility of image taking through the handsets.
Since the advent of digital camera and the internet, the amount of images photographed and viewed has increased in an unprecedented scale. Buoyed by the ease in which cameras are now in almost every mobile phone, this proliferation is unlikely to subside. While this phenomena has “democratize” the notion of photography, with more and more people feeling the need to share and communicate through various online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, etc, it remains debatable whether this actually raises the bar on what constitutes a “good” photograph. In addition, there is also the complex issue of “over processing” in post production.
Meanwhile, photo competitions such as this will bring forward these issues succinctly and will remain important in raising an awareness to both the viewers and practitioners alike.
Billy Kung is photo editor at ArtAsiaPacific.