The World Photography Organisation announced Lee-Ann Olwage as one of the overall winners in the prestigious Sony World Photography Awards 2023. Born and bred in Durban South Africa, Lee-Ann Olwage is an award-winning visual storyteller and photographic artist known for exploring themes of identity, transitions and universal narratives through long-term projects. Olwage won in the creative category for her series ‘The Right to Play’.
Winners in the Professional competition were selected by a panel of expert judges for submitting an outstanding body of work of five to 10 images, ranging from stories of war and reconciliation to the empowerment of women through education, and original approaches to the genres of still life and sport. All category winners received Sony’s digital imaging kit.
Commenting on her win Olwage says: “It’s a great honoured to win such a prestigious award and represent South Africa on a global stage. A lot of great artists participated in the creative category so it feels good to be recognised. I’d like to thank Sony and the World Photography Organisation for giving artists the opportunity to compete and share our art with the world.”
The Sony World Photography Awards 2023 exhibition opens at Somerset House, London from 14 April – 1 May 2023, featuring over 200 prints and hundreds of additional images in digital displays from winning and shortlisted photographers.
To find out more about this year’s winning and finalist projects please visit our online winners galleries
PROFESSIONAL COMPETITION 2023 WINNERS AND SHORTLIST
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ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN Category Winner Fan Li, China Mainland 2nd place: Servaas Van Belle, Belgium 3rd place: Andres Gallardo Albajar, Spain
Shortlist Javier Arcenillas, Spain Pavlo Dorohoi, Ukraine Peter Franck, Germany Johanna Marcela Garavito Morales, Colombia Miguel Gutierrez, Venezuela Mitsuru Sakurai, Japan |
CREATIVE Category Winner Lee-Ann Olwage, South Africa 2nd place: Noemi Comi, Italy 3rd place: Edoardo Delille & Giulia Piermartiri, Italy
Shortlist Richard Boll, United Kingdom Alessandro Cinque, Italy Valentina Fusco, Italy Juliana Jacyntho, Brazil Tommaso Sacconi, Italy Emily Steinberger, USA |
DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS Category Winner Hugh Kinsella Cunningham, UK 2nd place: Mohammed Salem, State of Palestine 3rd place: Tariq Zaidi, UK
Shortlist Alessandro Cinque, Italy Radu Diaconu, Canada Mingrui Liu, China Mainland Yoese Mariam, Indonesia Mads Nissen, Denmark Frederick Olivera Gonzales, Peru Emin Sansar, Turkey |
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ENVIRONMENT Category Winners Marisol Mendez (Bolivia) & 2nd place: Jonas Kakó, Germany 3rd place: Axel Javier Sulzbacher, Germany
Shortlist Lasse Branding, Germany Fatma Fahmy, Egypt Haider Khan, India Angela Ponce, Peru Simone Tramonte, Italy Bruno Zanzottera, Italy |
LANDSCAPE Category Winner Kacper Kowalski, Poland 2nd place: Bruno Zanzottera, Italy 3rd place: Fabio Bucciarelli, Italy
Shortlist Cesar Dezfuli, Spain Nicholas Holt, UK Amélie Labourdette, France Brais Lorenzo Couto, Spain Alessandro Mallamaci, Italy Francesco Merlini, Italy George Steinmetz, USA |
PORTFOLIO Category Winner James Deavin, UK 2nd place: Marylise Vigneau, France 3rd place: Marjolein Martinot, Netherlands
Shortlist Israel Fuguemann, Mexico Jack Gasiorowski, Poland Tadas Kazakevicius, Lithuania Taiye Omokore, Nigeria Ines Vansteenkiste-Muylle, Belgium |
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PORTRAITURE Photographer of the Year Edgar Martins, Portugal 2nd place: Ebrahim Noroozi, Islamic Republic of Iran 3rd place: Jean-Claude Moschetti, France
Shortlist Toby Binder, Germany Jerome Delay, France Colin Delfosse, Belgium Jae In Lee, Republic of Korea Sasha Maslov, Ukraine |
SPORT Category Winner Al Bello, USA 2nd place: Andrea Fantini, Italy 3rd place: Nicola Zolin, Italy
Shortlist Giuseppe Carotenuto, Italy Josef Hlavka, Czech Republic Ronald Hoogendoorn, Netherlands Anthony Smith, Canada John Wessels, South Africa
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STILL LIFE Category Winner Kechun Zhang, China Mainland 2nd place: Carloman Macidiano Céspedes Riojas, Peru 3rd place: Jagoda Malanin, Poland
Shortlist Austin Crail, USA Alun Crockford, UK Elaine Duigenan, UK Klaus Lenzen, Germany Rodrigo Masina Pinheiro, Brazil Liz Mcburney, UK |
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WILDLIFE & NATURE Category Winner Corey Arnold, USA 2nd place: Adalbert Mojrzisch, Germany 3rd place: Sriram Murali, India
Shortlist Martin Broen, USA Julia Christe, Germany Masahiro Fujita, Japan Dillon Marsh, South Africa Aneesh Sankarankutty, India Zhu Zhu, Canada
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OPEN COMPETITION 2023 CATEGORY WINNERS AND SHORTLIST
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ARCHITECTURE Category Winner Mark Benham, UK Shortlist Robert Bolton, UK Tony Cowburn, UK Fabio Del Ghianda, Italy Peter Dulis, Canada Donell Gumiran, Philippines Yichien Lee, Taiwan Angiolo Manetti, Italy Desmond Chien Yew Ngu, Malaysia Margit Lisa Roeder, Germany Yuya Takahashi, Japan George Turnbull, UK Kjell Vikestad, Norway Albrecht Voss, Germany Beatrice Wong, Hong Kong
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CREATIVE Category Winner Boris Eldagsen, Germany Shortlist Elli Asker, Azerbaijan Nicolas Bigot, France Hardijanto Budyman, Indonesia Enda Burke, Ireland Bilal EL Harousse, Morocco Mariola Glajcar, Poland Yi Han, China Mainland Peter Irungu, Kenya Richard Poe, USA Angel Ros Die, Spain Namukolo Siyumbwa, Zambia Kinga Wnuk, Poland Chenghao Zhao, China Mainland |
LANDSCAPE Category Winner Giorgos Rousopoulos, Greece Shortlist Olivia Bennett, UK Isabel Bielderman, Netherlands Robert Bilos, Croatia Jordi Coy, Spain David Del Rosario Dávila, Spain Gill Fry, Australia Judith Kuhn, Germany Bing Li, Canada Roberto Pavić, Croatia Michael Prince, USA Martin Rak, Czech Republic Andreja Ravnak, Slovenia Indirani Thevar, India Marcin Zajac, Poland |
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LIFESTYLE Category Winner Azim Khan Ronnie, Bangladesh Shortlist Francesco Bambi, Italy Ruth Chamberlain, UK Raffaella De Luise, Italy Mohamad Ali Harisi, Lebanon Sabbir Hossen, Bangladesh Jessica Innemee, Netherlands Kathryn Mussallem, Canada Ninoshka Pais, Canada Markus Pasa, Austria Jean Veron, France Zuojian Wang, China Mainland
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MOTION Category Winner Zhenhuan Zhou, China Mainland Shortlist Zacarías Abad Torres, Spain Pedro Luis Ajuriaguerra Saiz, Spain Kristian Hvidtfeldt Buus, Denmark Ricardo García Mainou, Mexico Gabriel Hernandez, Spain Leo Huang, Taiwan Andres Moreno, Colombia Francesco Junior Mura, Italy Raido Nurk, Estonia Kazutoshi Ono, Japan Ata Ranjbar Zeydanloo, Islamic Republic of Iran Martin Rickett, UK
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NATURAL WORLD & WILDLIFE Open Photographer of the Year Dinorah Graue Obscura, Mexico Shortlist Vince Burton, UK Charly Clérisse, France Subrata Dey, Bangladesh Patrick Ems, Switzerland Marcio Esteves Cabral, Brazil Mark Fitzsimmons, Australia Pietro Formis, Italy Jose Manuel Grandio, Spain James Hunter, USA Arnfinn Johansen, Norway Andrea Michelutti, Italy Protap Shekhor Mohanto, Bangladesh Alex Pansier, Netherlands Tibor Prisznyák, Hungary |
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OBJECT Category Winner Mieke Douglas, Netherlands Shortlist Masahiko Abe, Japan Giuseppe Colarusso, Italy Zeynep Demirhan, Turkey Tim Green, UK Andrius Kundrotas, Lithuania Xiaoye Jin, China Mainland Roberto Emiliano Porsella Jurado, Argentina Masumi Shiohara, Japan Nan Lay Thwe Oo, Myanmar Catherine Wang, USA
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PORTRAITURE Category Winner Sukhy Hullait, UK Shortlist Brian Cassey, UK Jonathan Damslund, Denmark Donell Gumiran, Philippines Glenn Homann, Australia Sandra Mickiewicz, Poland Nukabari Opuama, Nigeria Lukas Palatinus, Slovakia Louis Park, New Zealand Angela Perez, USA Mwana Pwo, Angola Gemma Sains, UK Christopher Wonder, Nigeria Mateusz Żurowski, Poland
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STREET PHOTOGRAPHY Category Winner Andreas Mikonauschke, Germany Shortlist Nazly Ahmed, Sri Lanka Stan De Zoysa, Spain Lorenzo Grifantini, Italy Rizwan Hasan, Bangladesh Barbara Iwińska, Poland Lucian Alexandru Micu, Romania Cath Muldowney, UK Kathryn Mussallem, Canada Benson Spiers, UK Chin Leong Teo, Singapore Takahiro Toh, Japan Ting Hao Tseng, Taiwan Tommaso Vaccarezza, Italy Pável Vélez, Mexico |
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TRAVEL Category Winner Max Vere-Hodge, UK Shortlist Pamela Chiang, Taiwan Erhan Coral, Turkey Tim Daniels, UK Callie Eh, Malaysia Marios Forsos, Greece Takahiro Gamou, Japan Paweł Jagiełło, Poland Guojia Li, China Mainland Yukihito Ono, Japan Adrian Pearce, UK Fabian Pfeifhofer, Italy İsmail Serhat Şahin’, Turkey Ankur Tambde, India Yunhua Yu, China Mainland
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STUDENT & YOUTH COMPETITIONS 2023 WINNERS AND SHORTLIST
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STUDENT COMPETITION 2023
Student Photographer of the Year: Long Jing, China Mainland Yunnan Arts University, China Mainland
Shortlist: Amy Gajjar, South Africa Red & Yellow Creative School of Business, South Africa
Bobby Cheung, China Mainland New York University Tisch School of the Arts, USA
Kaiyu Dong, China Mainland School of Visual Arts, USA
Lidan Xu, China Mainland Tama Art University, Japan
Maria Camila Ramirez Castañeda, Colombia Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia
Mary Ashokeji, UK Ravensbourne University London, UK
Nelly Farmiloe, New Zealand Photography Studies College, Australia
Petra Bašnáková, Slovakia Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Czech Republic
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YOUTH COMPETITION 2023
Youth Photographer of the Year: Hai Wang, China Mainland
Shortlist: Eason Zhang, China Mainland Edmond Leong, Malaysia Emily Cho, Republic of Korea Katarzyny Akermana, Poland Liberty McAuley, UK Natálie Navrátilová, Czech Republic
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