Sony World Photography Awards 2024 Winners Announced
French photographer Juliette Pavy has been announced as the Photographer of the Year 2024 in the Sony World Photography Awards for her series Spiralkampagnen: Forced Contraception and Unintended Sterilisation of Greenlandic Women. The World Photography Organisation made the announcement at a gala ceremony held in Park Lane, London. Now in its 17th year, the Awards recognise the best photography in the world today. The winning, finalist, and shortlisted images will be featured in the Sony World Photography Awards 2024 exhibition at Somerset House, London, from 19th April until 6th May.
Image Credit: Juliette Pavy
Juliette won $25,000 (USD), a range of Sony digital imaging equipment, and the opportunity to show her work at the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 exhibition. She was selected from the 10 Professional competition category winners at the same time.
Spiralkampagnen: Forced Contraception and Unintended Sterilisation of Greenlandic Women is a documentary project covering the lasting impacts of the involuntary birth control campaign led by Danish authorities in Greenland in the 1960s and 1970s. Juliette's images depict some of the thousands of Inuit women who were implanted with intrauterine devices without their consent. Some of the victims were gils as young as 12. The project traces the programme’s origins to the present day, including the ongoing investigation by the Danish government.
Image Credit: Juliette Pavy
Juliette focuses on victims’ perspectives and reflects on the collective trauma experienced by a community. The series includes a range of photographic formats, from images of the city of Nuuk and its clinics to X-rays and archival photographs of the young women involved, as well as recent portraits of victims and of doctors who worked in Greenland during and after the programme, and the Danish parliamentarian currently investigating the spiralkampagnen.
Outstanding Contribution to Photography 2024: Sebastião Salgado
Sebastião Salgado is the recipient of this year’s Outstanding Contribution to Photography prize. He is widely recognised for his remarkable black-and-white images created during his career spanning over 50 years.
Over 40 Sebastião Salgado's images are also at the Sony World Photography Awards 2024 exhibition at Somerset House. Sebastião selected the images himself to highlight the key themes and milestones 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).
Sebastião Salgado spoke eloquently at a packed press conference ahead of the Sony World Photography Awards ceremony.
Sony World Photography Award 2024 Professional Category Winners
A panel of judges selected the Sony Wold Photography Award 2024 Professional Category Winners for submitting an outstanding series of five to 10 images. Each winner receives Sony’s digital imaging kit. This year’s winners are:
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
WINNER: Siobhán Doran (Ireland) for her series Sala Mayor (Living Room)
Finalists: 2nd place Karol Pałka (Poland); 3rd place Yaser Mohamad Khani (Islamic Republic of Iran)
Siobhán Doran poses with three of her images from her series Sala Mayor (Living Room).
CREATIVE
WINNER: Sujata Setia (United Kingdom) for her series A Thousand Cuts
Finalists: 2nd place Mackenzie Calle (United States); 3rd place Tine Poppe (Norway)
Sujata Setia stands beneath one of the powerful images in her series A Thousand Cuts.
DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS
WINNER: Juliette Pavy (France) for her series Spiralkampagnen: Forced Contraception and Unintended Sterilisation of Greenlandic Women
Finalists: 2nd place Brent Stirton (South Africa); 3rd place Davide Monteleone (Italy)
ENVIRONMENT
WINNER: Mahé Elipe (France) for her series Echoes of the Hive
Finalists: 2nd place Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccinni (Italy); 3rd place Maurizio Di Pietro (Italy)
LANDSCAPE
WINNER: Eddo Hartmann (Netherlands) for his series The Sacrifice Zone
Finalists: 2nd place Jim Fenwick (United Kingdom); 3rd place Fan Li (China Mainland)
PORTFOLIO
WINNER: Jorge Mónaco (Argentina) for his series Portraits and Landscapes
Finalists: 2nd place Aly Hazzaa (Egypt); 3rd place Angelika Kollin (Estonia)
PORTRAITURE
WINNER: Valery Poshtarov (Bulgaria) for his series Father and Son
Finalists: 2nd place Adali Schell (United States); 3rd place Drew Gardner (United Kingdom)
SPORT
WINNER: Thomas Meurot (France) for his series Kald Sòl (Cold Sun)
Finalists: 2nd place Angelika Jakob (Germany); 3rd place Tommaso Pardini (Italy)
STILL LIFE
WINNER: Federico Scarchilli (Italy) for his series Flora
Finalists: 2nd place Peter Franck (Germany); 3rd place Beth Galton (United States)
WILDLIFE & NATURE
WINNER: Eva Berler (Greece) for her series Suspended Worlds
Finalists: 2nd place Haider Khan (India); 3rd place Jasper Doest (Netherlands)
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 (USD).
Image Credit: Kathleen Orlinsky
Open Photographer of the Year
The Open competition celebrates the power and dynamism of a single image and the winner is selected from the 10 Open category winners. Liam Man (United Kingdom) was announced as the Open Photographer of the Year 2024 and is the recipient of the $5,000 (USD) cash prize, Sony digital imaging equipment and international exposure.
Image Credit: Liam Mann
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 perspectives on place, community, identity and belonging.
Kayin Luys (Belgium) of LUCA School of Arts Sint Lukas Brussels was awarded the title of Student Photographer of the Year, winning Sony digital imaging equipment worth €30,000 for his university.
Image Credit: Kayin Luys
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 understanding of the world around them. Daniel Murray (United Kingdom, 15 years old) won the award. He received a Sony digital imaging kit and global exposure.
Image Credit: Daniel Murray
Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition 2024
Dates: 19 April – 6 May 2024
Opening Times: Mon-Sun, 11 am – 8 pm / Bank Holiday (Monday 6 May), 11 am – 6 pm
Address: Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA
General Admission: £15 / £11 Concessions
Booking Info: worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards-exhibition
