On Thursday 2 February, the World Photography Organisation announced
the shortlist for the 2012 Sony World Photography Awards. Billed as the
global photographic event of the year, the Sony World Photography
Awards celebrate the very best in photography from around the world,
from the next generation of emerging photographers through to the
established masters of the art.
The 2012 competition has garnered increased worldwide interest with
over 112,000 entries from 171 countries, with the shortlisted images
depicting the stories of extraordinary lives from around the world. The
Professional competition reflects a turbulent year of global events with
the war in Libya; the Greek and European economic crisis; the Fukushima
nuclear disaster in Japan and the fall of Gaddafi, in the
Photojournalism & Documentary categories. The shortlist for the
Fine Art and Commercial categories gets to the very heart of daily life
- a small sheep-farming community in Iceland; the rice harvest in South
China; a religious pilgrimage in Poland and gold diggers in Chile.
