Sony World Photography Awards

Diverse exhibition at Somerset House to show the winners and shortlisted entries in the Sony World Photography Awards.

The professional sections showed sets of pictures in broad themes. Works which stood out included those by Jordi Pizarro called “Good Things Come in Together” looking at the town of Kerala in India which has the highest incidence of twins in the world. Also Matthais Hangst pictures of synchronised swimmers under water.

After my recent holiday looking at art in Rome I keep finding visual links to it so Nokolai Lomas’s pictures of boxers just after a fight reminded me of the wonderful bronze boxer in the Pallazzo Massimo. It seems that some themes are universal.

Most shocking were the winning ones by Ashgar Khamseh called “Fire of Hatred” of people disfigured by social violence. These pictures were very hard to look at but in most cases your first sight of them sees normality and then sees the scars. Your see the person not the injury.

The open section seemed to have many more joyful pictures than the professional one. I loved Allan Oman’s picture “Fox Cub” of a red fence, green grass and a fox cubs head sticking through the fence. Also Anais Stupka’s picture of a mountain through a window which made the view through the window look like a picture on a wall.

Closed on 8 May 2016.

Review
Evening Standard


 

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