2018 Sony World Photography Awards

An annual competition hosted by the World Photography Organization, the Sony World Photography Awards, announced their shortlist for 2018. Attracting nearly 320,000 entries from more than 200 countries, the organizers shared the images with the press and the winners will be announced on April 19 and shown at the Somerset House in London.

There are some brilliant photographs in the list and all taken with Sony cameras. I’m sharing a handful of images across the competition categories. The captions are from the photographers. The featured image on this post is a Thermal Vacuum Test Area by Jack Kong.

Mosul Liberated

An elderly woman is driven through the city on the back of one of Golden Division’s Humvees. The temperature is nearly 50 degrees celcius, and she’s too weak to get away from the frontline on her own. 11 days later - 10. July 2017 - the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, declares Mosul liberated, although fighting continues in the city for a couple of weeks. — An elderly woman is driven through the city on the back of one of Golden Division’s Humvees. The temperature is nearly 50 degrees celcius, and she’s too weak to get away from the frontline on her own. 11 days later – 10. July 2017 – the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, declares Mosul liberated, although fighting continues in the city for a couple of weeks. By Rasmus Flindt Pedersen.

Waiting for Freedom

Rhinos are fighting for survival. Poachers are killing more than three every day to feed the demand for rhino horn in the Far East. All the while, the South African government is championing the consumptive use of rhinos and the legalisation of the trade in horn. But there is hope. This is the story of how Botswana is leading the recovery of rhinos amidst a global poaching crisis by rescuing animals from poaching hotspots in neighbouring countries and translocating them to the Okavango Delta. Botswana is rebuilding the rhino populations it lost to poaching by the early 1990s and is creating an ark-like population capable of restocking parks and reserves that may have lost their rhinos to poaching. To tell this story, I worked alongside the Rhino Conservation Botswana team, I visited rhino orphanages, I met poaching survivors and tracked with the incredible people working tirelessly to keep rhinos safe. By Neil Aldridge

Twins of Koumassi

Rasidatou and Latifatou, 4, pose for a portrait on a street in the Koumassi district of Abidjan, Ivory Coast on July 25, 2017. It is a belief that is centuries old in Ivory Coast, and in several countries of West Africa, that twins have spiritual and mystical powers. When in need for a problem to be solved or for a positive change to happen, people often come to twins, donate to them and seek for a blessing, with the hope that the power of the twins will help their wishes come true.
In the district of Koumassi in Abidjan, the twins and their mothers are concentrated around the area of the Koumassi Grande Mosque, where visitors of this mosque can see them after their prayers. The twins of different ages spend most of their day in this area, with others’ trust in their spiritual powers supporting the children and their families.
The children were asked by the photographer to pose for a portrait in the street in the Koumassi district of Abidjan, where the photographer met them. By Anush Babajanyan.

Read about the competition and see more photos on World Photo’s blog. And, this series by Rachael Talibart is one of my favs.

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