Meet the experts from across the globe who will be judging this year's Sony World Photography Awards. The jury comprises a diverse group of experts to ensure there is a broad range of knowledge and insight into different aspects of the photographic medium.
In January 2024 the jury will come together in London to carry out a vigorous judging process, which is completely anonymous (the name and nationality of the entrant are hidden from the judges).
We are delighted to welcome Monica Allende as the Chair of the 2024 Jury. Allende will also be the Curator for the Sony World Photography Awards 2024 exhibition.
Professional competition
MONICA ALLENDE
Independent Curator, Photography Consultant and Chair of the Jury
Monica Allende is an independent curator, artistic director, consultant and educator. She was Artistic Director of the Landskrona Foto Festival from 2019 to 2022 and was GetxoPhoto International Image Festival Artistic Director from 2017 to 2019. She curated the exhibition ‘Light’ at Peckham24 during Photo London 2021, and was the FORMAT17 International Photography Festival director, and has collaborated with WeTransfer as a Consultant and Creative Producer. She is curating the Blues Skies Project, a multidisciplinary project with artist Anton Kusters, as part of the V&A permanent collection, due to be exhibited in 2024. The project was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2019 and exhibited at Les Rencontres d’Arles in 2021. She advises CAMPO.lat, a grassroots digital platform in Latin America, on strategy and programming and also collaborates with VII Foundation on their educational and mentorship programmes. Allende was the Photo Editor at the Sunday Times Magazine, where she launched Spectrum, the award-winning photography section. She is a visiting lecturer at the London College of Communication, London & EFTI in Madrid. Dedicated to nurturing new and established talent, Allende nominates, and judges numerous photography awards and artists’ residencies, and is on the Board of Trustees and advisory boards of Photoworks and the Deutsche Börse Foundation advising on curatorial practices.
ELISABETH SHERMAN
Senior Curator, Direction of Exhibitions and Collections, International Center of Photography (ICP)
Elisabeth Sherman is Senior Curator, Director of Exhibitions and Collections at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York. Her first exhibition at ICP, Muriel Hasbun: Tracing Terruño, is on view from September 2023 – January 2024. Previously, as an Assistant Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, she curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions at the museum, including Time Management Techniques (2022), Dawoud Bey: An American Project (2019-2022) which had a four venue tour and won the Lucie Award for Photo Museum Exhibition of the Year in 2021, Making Knowing: Craft as Art, 1950-2019 (2019-2022) and the Whitney’s presentation of Zoe Leonard: Survey among numerous others. She has written for exhibition catalogues and artist's monographs as well as contributed to Artforum and Art in America. She is a board member of Burnaway in Atlanta.
MUTSUKO OTA
Editorial Director, IMA Magazine
Mutsuko Ota is Editorial Director of IMA Magazine. She previously worked as an editor at Marie Claire, and at several major men’s magazines, including Esquire and GQ, as a features editor. Besides collaborating with numerous publications as a freelance editor, she became involved in a variety of projects including book and museum catalogue editing, artists' projects and film promotion. Mutsuko is currently the editorial director of IMA Magazine, where she launched their website imaonline.com in 2012, and began to publish photo books via IMA Photobooks. Mutsuko is additionally the exhibition director of Asama International Photo Festival in 2018.
TANZIM WAHAB
Curator, Spore Initiative (Berlin) and Festival Director, Chobi Mela (Dhaka)
Tanzim Wahab is a curator, researcher and lecturer. He lives in Berlin and Dhaka. His curatorial interests revolve around the sensory and community entanglement of cultural spaces, locational practice(s) and alternative art education. He is the festival director of Chobi Mela International Festival of Photography, Dhaka, and curator, community facilitator of Spore Initiative, Berlin. Between 2016 to 2021, he served as the chief curator of Bengal Foundation, heading several curatorial research projects and exhibitions across South Asia. Wahab, alongside Munem Wasif, has published two editions of Kamra – a comprehensive publication in Bengali, setting ideas and debates of photographic history and theories. He is currently co-editing ‘Primary Documents’ South Asia- A MoMA publication on cross-regional art history. Wahab was the Vice Principal of Pathshala South Asian Media Institute from 2013 - 2015, and is currently a trustee and lecturer at the institute.
ELENA NAVARRO
Photo Curator, Producer, and Consultant
Elena Navarro is the founder and artistic director of the International Photography Festival FOTOMÉXICO, a platform for reflection, dissemination, and photographic production. She previously directed the Centro de la Imagen de la Ciudad de México before founding Espacio V, a non-profit foundation aiming to increase the presence of contemporary photography in the daily lives of people in Latin America, in 2020. Throughout her career, Elena Navarro has established and strengthened bridges of collaboration in the cultural ecosystem of photography and image-making through projects between institutions, museums, public and private collections, artists, and creators. In the last decade, she has focused on making the work of women artists and creators from Mexico and Latin America visible in dialogue with Europe, the United States, and the rest of the world. Elena has also served as part of the jury, as a nominator, and portfolio reviewer for several awards, including the Prix Pictet and the ICP Infinity Award, and was the Cultural Director of the Magnum Photos 75th Anniversary Project in New York in 2022. She is currently an ambassador for Paris Photo in Mexico and Latin America.
Open and Youth competition
DANIEL BLOCHWITZ
Curator, Foto Festival Lenzburg
Daniel Blochwitz is a photography specialist, working as curator, author, lecturer and advisor. He has received a Master’s degree in Photography from the University of Florida in 2003. Afterwards, he attended the postgraduate Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum in New York. For more than a decade he worked for galleries in New York and Zürich before turning to curating. He has implemented a number of well-received solo and group exhibitions at museums, galleries, festivals and off-spaces, was appointed artistic director at photo basel (2018-2019) and currently serves as curator at Fotofestival Lenzburg. He has taught and written about photography and visual literacy extensively. He lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland.
Student competition
RAVI GHOSH
Deputy Editor, British Journal of Photography
Ravi Ghosh is deputy editor at British Journal of Photography. Previously, he was an editor at Elephant magazine and worked on the Life & Arts supplement at the Financial Times. He writes on arts and culture for The Guardian, Prospect, Tribune, i-D, Bandcamp, Royal Academy Magazine and more. He has also written photobook introductions for Tony Mak and Portrait of Humanity, and has lectured and reviewed portfolios at LCC, Fotografia Europea and PhotoIreland.