"Being named Photographer of the Year has given me more exposure than I could ever had imagined." Frederik Buyckx, 2017 Sony World Photography Awards winner
The free to enter 2018 Sony World Photography Awards is now open for entries. The 11th edition of the Awards will provide more opportunities than ever before to win prizes and get your work seen on a global stage.
With a new Sony grant, monthly prizes and new Professional categories, this is your best chance yet of showcasing your photography and taking your career to the next level. We work closely with winning, shortlisted and commended photographers throughout the year to ensure maximum exposure and recognition.
All category winners of the Professional, Open, Youth and Student Focus competitions will receive cutting edge digital imaging equipment from Sony. Cash prizes of $25k will be presented to the Photographer of the Year and $5k to the Open Photographer of the Year.
This year marks the introduction of two challenging new categories in the Professional competition, ‘Creative’ and ‘Discovery’, and an important new opportunity for award-winners to secure a grant to fund future photographic projects.
The Open competition returns with 10 diverse categories to test photographers of all abilities, and to find the best single image in the world from the past year. The Youth competition will reward the best young photographers, aged between 12-19. Those studying photography will be challenged once again by the Student Focus program, which works with over 300 institutions worldwide and rewards the winner with $30k worth of Sony equipment for their school or institution.
New Sony Grant to fund photographic projects
We’re excited to announce a new grant programme for those participating in the Professional and Student Focus competitions. From the winners of the 2018 Professional categories, Sony will award multiple grants of $7k to selected photographers to pursue photographic projects of their choice. In addition, shortlisted photographers from the Student Focus competition will each be given $3.5k to work together on a photographic commission set by Sony and the World Photography Organisation.
2018 Key dates
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December 4, 2017 – Student Focus closes
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January 4, 2018 – Open & Youth competitions close
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January 11, 2018 – Professional competitions close
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February 27, 2018 – Shortlist announced
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March 27, 2018 – Open and National Awards winners revealed
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April 19, 2018 – Photographer of the Year & Professional category winners announced
Enter the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards for free
