Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition 2023

Eclectic exhibition at Somerset House for these annual photography awards.

I always look forward to this show. I thought this year’s felt sparse. There was only a small space for the open work which is usually the most fun plus each section just showed the winners and runners up. Again normally there are more entries shown. That being said, it did mean you saw more work by each photographer.

I started with the west wing of the exhibition. There was some amazing work and you learn so much about the subjects too. There seems to be a lot of work from South America. Loved some pictures of wildlife in cities by Corly Arnold and a wonderful Cubist looking picture of silos by Mark Beham which looked constructed but was real.

The east wing, by chance, seemed to have more abstracted work from aerial landscapes to pictures of a disused cement factory in China. There were also galleries showcasing the winner of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award, Rinko Kawauchi, which were pared down works plus pictures of fields on fire. I will have my usual moan though about reflective glass on large photographs. The simple images were hard to see through your own reflection on the surface.

Closed 1 May 2023


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