In Pictures: portraits lensing the wait at the Mexican border win Sony World Photography Awards
Responding to topics from the climate crisis to lockdown, the winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2022 have been announced. We take a look at the works below, including Adam Ferguson's documentation of people waiting to cross into the US.
GalleryAdam Ferguson: Migrantes (Copyright © Adam Ferguson, Photographer of the Year, Portraiture, Professional category, Sony World Photography Awards 2022)
The winner of Sony World Photography Awards 2022, Adam Ferguson’s Migrantes was created after the photographer noticed a distinct lack of photography from the Mexican side of the border in 2021, especially images that gave the migrants any measure of agency.
Adam explains: “The life of a migrant at the border, waiting for the right moment to cross into the United States, is often in flux. To capture a piece of this uncertain journey, I mounted a medium format camera on a tripod with a cable release and then stepped back, allowing the migrants to choose the moment of capture and give them agency in the process of documenting their lives.”
A series evoking the calm, isolated moments Hugh Fox felt during the pandemic, Portfolio includes this image capturing a person “having a quiet reflective moment” at the photographer’s local park.
Hugh Fox: Portfolio (Copyright © Hugh Fox, United Kingdom, Portfolio, Professional category, Sony World Photography Awards 2022)
Shunta Kimura documents Gabura Union, Bangladesh in 2021, whose residents are frequently impacted by the effects of the climate crisis. These include river erosion, landslides, rising salinity levels in fresh water sources and collapsing infrastructure, caused by the tropical cyclones that occur frequently.
Shunta Kimura: Living in the Transition (Copyright © Shunta Kimura, Environment, Professional Category, Sony World Photography Awards 2022)
Lorenzo Poli wins the Landscape category with Life on Earth, captured in Italy. Poli states: “There is an untamed world between sacred and magic, where the essence of life is safeguarded by silence, where the outer and the inner world coincide. This is what I am seeking to photograph.”
Lorenzo Poli: Life on Earth (Copyright © Lorenzo Poli, Landscape, Professional Category, Sony World Photography Awards 2022)
Ricardo Teles documents the Kuarup, “a ritual of the Xingu Indigenous Brazilian to honour the illustrious dead – it is the farewell and closing of a mourning period,” explains the Sony World Photography Awards gallery. The highlight of this celebration is a competition of a martial art called Huka-huka, similar to the Greco-Roman wrestling fight.
Ricardo Teles: Kuarup (Copyright © Ricardo Teles, Sport, Professional Category, Sony World Photography Awards 2022)
Over a course of eight months, Milan Radisics documents a cottage in the middle of the forest in Hungary – “where wild animals live almost as neighbours of the villagers,” says the photographer. Radisics took images of a fox, Roxy, by setting lights in advance and waiting until she walked into frame.
Milan Radisics: The Fox’s Tale (Copyright © Milan Radisics, Wildlife & Nature, Professional Category, Sony World Photography Awards 2022)
Domagoj Burilovi’s Dorf (village in German) explores the decay of houses created in the 19th century in the Croatian region of Slavonia, and the exodus of people from Slavonia for Germany today.
Domagoj Burilović: Dorf (Copyright © Domagoj Burilović, Architecture & Design, Professional Category, Sony World Photography Awards 2022)
Images taken by Haruna Ogata and Jean-Etienne Portail in a studio in Paris, “for the pure creation of a still life photo”, win the Still Life category.
Haruna Ogata & Jean-Etienne Portail: Constellation (Copyright © Haruna Ogata & Jean-Etienne Portail, Still Life, Professional Category, Sony World Photography Awards 2022)
“For my collages, I have used images from the open source collections at art museums, scientific institutions and image banks, whose archives may be considered iconic testimonies of the present and the past.” Latvia-based photographer Alnis Stakle wins the Creative category with a series of collages exploring various periods, media and domains of visual culture.
Alnis Stakle: Mellow Apocalypse (Copyright © Alnis Stakle, Creative, Professional category, Sony World Photography Awards 2022)
Jan Grarup documents Venezuela following the financial collapse, leaving “many with no access to emergency aid, shelter, clean drinking water or food,” explains the Sony World Photography Awards.
Jan Grarup: The Children of the Financial Collapse in Venezuela (Copyright © Jan Grarup, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2022)
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Adam Ferguson: Migrantes (Copyright © Adam Ferguson, Photographer of the Year, Portraiture, Professional category, Sony World Photography Awards 2022)
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View the full gallery of Sony World Photography Awards winners here
About the Author
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Liz (she/they) joined It’s Nice That as news writer in December 2021. In January 2023, they became associate editor, predominantly working on partnership projects and contributing long-form pieces to It’s Nice That. Contact them about potential partnerships or story leads.