The Honorary Jury, comprising experts from across the world of photography, will judge the Professional Competition which invites entries from the world’s leading photographers and serious enthusiasts.
Chaired by esteemed writer and photo critic, Susan Bright, the jury includes the Director of Photography for the Sunday Times Magazine and the Photography Director of Wallpaper* as well as leaders in photography and curators from some of the world’s leading photography institutions. All jury members are selected from the World Photographic Academy, a group of international industry experts, collectively advising and supporting the WPO.
The Sony World Photography Award 2012 Honorary Jury comprises of (chairs of each group, noted in bold):
Judging of the Commercial Categories
Rebecca Lewis (US) Vice-President and Senior Agent for Art+Commerce
James Reid (UK) Photography Director of Wallpaper*
Prabuddha Dasgupta (India) Photographer
Judging of the Photojournalism & Documentary Categories
Claudia Hinterseer (Netherlands) Managing Director and co-owner of NOOR; an international photo agency and foundation
Jodi Bieber (South Africa) Photographer
Jon Jones (UK) Director of Photography Sunday Times Magazine
Judging of the Fine Art Categories
Susan Bright (US) Curator & Writer
Michael Benson (UK) Director, Prix Pictet
Shizuka Yokomizo (Japan) Photographer
Following the category selection, the judges come together under Susan Bright’s direction, to select one overall winner, who will be named L’Iris d’Or/ Sony World Photography Awards Professional Photographer of the Year at a ceremony in London on 26 April 2012.
“Judging artwork can be challenging experience, and one that may often appear arbitrary and subjective to an outside audience,” says Susan Bright. “However, I can confirm it’s a rigorous and thoughtful process. I am looking forward to the spending time looking, thinking, arguing and ultimately selecting photographs for next years awards because of the esteemed group of veteran colleagues on my panel this year. Experiencing such a number of photographs is also an exciting opportunity to get a glimpse into the current concerns and strategies used by contemporary photographers and become fully immersed in work that we may not otherwise have a chance to see.”
The other competitions within the 2012 Sony World Photography Awards are Open, Student Focus, Youth, 3D and Moving Image. The Open Competition, which is open to all photographers, will be judged by WPO's pre-selection committee, and from the shortlist, the winners for each Open category will be decided by a special committee including the Chair of the professional Honorary Jury, and representatives from Sony and the WPO.
The Student Focus Jury is chosen from selected Academy members, Carl de Keyser (Belgium) Photographer and Co-Founder & Director of the XYZ Photography Gallery; Sarah Toplis (UK) Commissioning Editor for Young Tate and Virginia Morrison (US) Executive Director of the Society for Photographic Education.
The 3D Award and Youth Competition, which are both new for this year, will be judged by WPO and Sony's digital imaging team. The Moving Image Award will be judged by a specialised jury, knowledgeable in both photography and video, who will be announced online later this month.
Entries for the 2012 Sony World Photography Awards close on 04 January 2012.
Full details about the World Photography Organisation and Sony World Photography Awards can be found at: www.worldphoto.org
The WPO website www.worldphoto.org, the online meeting place for new and established photographers, has been enhanced for the 2012 competition. It now includes an improved online gallery with over 120,000 images, community’s area and countdown to events, as well as featuring a news section and comprehensive information about the Awards, its categories and key dates.
