Left to right from top row: Ravi Ghosh; Monica Allende; Elena Navarro; Elisabeth Sherman; Daniel Blochwitz; Mutsuko Ota; Tanzim Wahab
Today we kickstart the announcements for this year’s Sony World Photography Awards with the 2024 jury. Chosen from across the globe, the seven experts bring an impressive range of knowledge and expertise from a variety of photography-based backgrounds. From directing expansive festivals to editing leading magazines, curating prestigious exhibitions to lecturing at the world’s best universities for photography and media, each judge brings a hugely valuable viewpoint to the judging process.
If you’ve been working on a photo project and are considering the Professional competition (don’t forget, you don’t have to a full-time professional photographer to enter this competition, you just need a strong series of five to ten images), then cast your eyes over the Professional competition judging panel. This year’s jury are Photo Curator, Producer and Consultant, Elena Navarro; Editorial Director of IMA magazine Mutsuko Ota; Senior Curator, Direction of Exhibitions and Collections at the International Center of Photography Elisabeth Sherman and Curator of Spore Initiative and Festival Director of Chobi Mela Tanzim Wahab.
Alongside this year’s Professional competition panel, we’re delighted to welcome Monica Allende as the new Jury Chair. An Independent Curator, Artistic Director, Photography Consultant and Educator, Allende comes with a wealth of expertise within the industry. Giving artistic and curatorial direction at some of the most exciting festivals on the photography circuit – including Peckham24, GetxoPhoto International Image Festival and FORMAT International Photography Festival – Allende was the Photo Editor at the Sunday Times Magazine and is on the and is on the Board of Trustees and advisory boards of Photoworks and the Deutsche Börse Foundation advising on curatorial practices.
As well as chairing this year’s judging, Allende will be the curator for the Sony World Photography Awards exhibition. Dates for the 2024 edition have been confirmed, so make sure you mark your calendars and visit Somerset House from 19 April to 6 May, 2024.
Thinking about entering the Open or Youth competitions? Then Daniel Blochwitz, Curator of Foto Festival Lenzburg will be reviewing your entries. A photography specialist, working as a curator, author, lecturer and advisor, for more than a decade Blochwitz 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, and currently serves as the Curator at Fotofestival Lenzburg.
If you’re a student and this year’s theme (which is Home) has piqued your curiosity, then Ravi Ghosh, the Deputy Editor of the British Journal of Photography, will be deciding if your photo project has made it to the top. With a strong background in editorial photography, Ghosh has worked as the Editor at Elephant magazine and worked on the Life & Arts supplement at the Financial Times.
In January 2024 the jury will come together in London to carry out the judging process, which is completely anonymous. Discover more about the 2024 jury’s backgrounds and expertise here.
We’re over halfway through the Sony World Photography Awards entry period! Don’t leave it to the last minute, enter your best images now - it’s free.
