World's largest photography competition, 2016 Sony World Photography Awards, opens for entries

• New Art and Documentary genres in Professional competition
• Record entries and exhibition visitors for 2015 awards
• British Journal of Photography named media partner for Student Focus competition

(ASIA PACIFIC, 8 June 2015) – The 2016 Sony World Photography Awards, the world’s largest photography competition organised by the World Photography Organisation, are now open for entries.

Now in its ninth year, the awards are an authoritative voice in the photographic world. Each year they attract both emerging talent and established artists, and present the world’s best contemporary photography from the last 12 months. 

Free to enter at www.worldphoto.org, photographers of all abilities are invited to submit their work to any of the awards’ five competitions: Professional, Open, Youth, National Awards and Student Focus. Please see Notes to Editors for competition definitions and categories.

New for 2016, the 14 Professional categories are now divided into two distinct genres - Art and Documentary. The change is to provide a clearer structure in which photographers can be recognised. Both genres also include new category additions, with Art presenting the new Staged and Candid categories and Documentary now including Daily Life and Environment.

Also new this year, British Journal of Photography (BJP), the world's longest-running photography magazine, will partner with the World Photography Organisation and its Student Focus competition. As part of this partnership, the winning Student Focus photographer will receive an online feature showcasing a body of work on the BJP website and will also have the opportunity to take over the magazine’s Instagram feed.

The Sony World Photography Awards offer a range of benefits to those who enter. Firstly, all submitted images are seen by juries made up of leading experts from across the photographic industry. Beyond this, shortlisted and winning photographers are given global exposure and recognition, and have the opportunity to promote and sell their work via the World Photography Organisation. 

The awards’ prizes include: the latest Sony digital imaging equipment, inclusion in the Sony World Photography Awards exhibition at Somerset House, London, inclusion in the 2016 awards’ book and $30,000 (USD) for the overall winners. 

In addition to the global Sony World Photography Awards, local countries in the Asia Pacific region such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, and many more are also holding a National Award where local winners will be flown to London to attend the Sony World Photography Awards Gala Ceremony. The winning image will also be exhibited at Somerset House, London. The National Awards programme honours and rewards the best single image taken by a local photographer and runs across the world from Argentina to Australia. It is open to photographers of all abilities.

The 2015 Sony World Photography Awards attracted 173,444 entries from 171 countries. The 2015 L’Iris d’Or / Professional Photographer of the Year title was awarded to Getty Images photographer John Moore. The awards’ annual exhibition of the winning and shortlisted works returned to Somerset House, London and saw a record 33,394 visitors last year. 

The Sony World Photography Awards shortlist will be announced on 23 February 2016 and overall winners on 21 April 2016, with an exhibition at Somerset House, London running from 22 April to 8 May 2016.

Winning and shortlisted images from the 2015 awards are available to download at press.worldphoto.org

Further details about the Sony World Photography Awards and the World Photography Organisation can be found at www.worldphoto.org and www.sony-asia/swpa.