From June 1 to 23, Japan's Ginza Sony Park is devoting a significant portion of its space to the 2019 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition, providing a thought-provoking and inspiring experience for all who visit. Comprising 250 works, the comprehensive display is divided into three main sections.
Beginning with shortlisted works projected onto the walls of Basement 1 (Park B1), the exhibition continues in Basement 2 (Park B2), where a mixture of ground-breaking series from the Professional competition and striking standalone images selected from the Open competition can be enjoyed. In Basement 3 (Park B3) are works from the Student and Youth competitions, as well as Japan's National Award winners. The exhibition concludes with an insight into past recipients of the Outstanding Contribution Photography award.
Alongside the main display, there'll be a range of video interviews with successful photographers from the Awards' four competitions and a number of talks and events taking place – more details below.
A particular highlight for Japan's audience is Kohei Ueno's monochrome series Beneath the Surface of Competitive Freediving, which was awarded 2nd place in the Professional competition's Sport category. Preferring black & white over color, Kohei's exquisitely distilled imagery captures the meditative quality of the high-risk sport, where divers plunge to towards the bottom of the ocean holding their breath for extraordinary amounts of time.
To discover more about Kohei's connection to freediving, we put him in the spotlight earlier this week. You can read his interview here and enjoy his Instagram takeover (from May 26 to June 1, 2019) here.
TALKS AND EVENTS
An array of events relating to the Sony World Photography Awards are taking place throughout the duration of the exhibition at Ginza Sony Park. Free to attend, the events take place in Basement 3 (Park B3) exhibition hall.
Global Photography Trends Seen at the Sony World Photography Awards
June 1, 14:00 and 16:00
Founder and CEO of the World Photography Organisation Scott Gray will lead a 30 minute guided tour across the exhibition, revealing particular works that stood out to the judges and why. (Japanese language interpretation available).
Getting Photography to Cross Over
June 16, 15:00
Join cinematographer Mikiya Takimoto for this hour and half in-depth discussion about photography and theories relating to the medium. Editor and author Masanobu Sugatsuke will also be on hand to answer any questions from the audience.
Photography as a Universal Language
June 22, 15:00
Working for publications such as ID, Dazed and Confused and GQ Japan, Chikashi Suzuki will give insight during this hour an a half event into photography's power to speak a universal language. Editor and author Masanobu Sugatsuke will also be on hand to answer any questions from the audience.
Path to the World - What Sony World Photography Awards Shows Us
June 23, 14:00
2019 Sony World Photography Awards Japan National Awards winner Toshio Ishido and (Ash) Shinya Kawaoto, who was shortlisted in the 2017 Open competition street photography category will discuss their experiences with the Sony World Photography Awards and how it has helped with taking the next step in their careers. Founder of international photography festival T3 Photo Festival Tokyo Ihiro Hayami will be on hand to give his thoughts on photography competitions today.
EXHIBITION DETAILS
2019 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition
June 1 to 23, 2019
Ginza Sony Park, Tokyo
Opening times and exhibition details can be found here
GINZA SONY PARK
Ginza Sony Park is an experimental park in the middle of Toyko open to Autumn 2020 offering people new interactive experiences relating to photography. Read more here.
