Recently, the list of winners of the professional group of the 2021 Sony World Photography Competition was announced. The Sony World Photography Awards is one of the most influential photography awards in the world. The competition is open to all photographers, including professional photographers, amateur photographers, young photographers and photography students. The event is now the most authoritative voice in the industry, providing a powerful platform for all winners.
In the past year, most people have been restricted to a certain range and cannot conduct photography and field trips everywhere, but the number of participants and the high quality of the entries have made the organizing committee feel deeply moved, and the ultimate display of the beauty and diversity of the earth. From eye-catching aerial photography to vivid portraits, the winners show their superb skills, divergent thinking, and personalized style.
China Photography Network learned from the event organizers that the total number of entries in this competition exceeded 330,000, and the expert judges selected 30 finalists and 58 shortlisted photographers from the professional group.
Professional Group Photographer of the Year Award will be selected from the 30 photographers who entered the finals on April 15, 2021. While winning the title of "Professional Group Photographer of the Year", there will also be a cash prize of US$25,000, a set of Sony digital imaging equipment, and works will be exhibited at Somerset Palace in London, England.
China Photography Network will continue to pay attention to the progress of the event and announce the finals and shortlisted works of each group. Today, we will analyze the award-winning works of "Professional Group-Nature and Wildlife" for you.
Compilation: Chen Gan, Zhou Yibeng, Fu Xiaochun,
Review: Chen Xiaojun,
Final work
▲"East Africa Locust Invasion" Author: Luis Tato (Spain)
Desert locust is the most harmful migratory pest in the world. Billions of locusts thrive in humid, semi-arid to arid environments, foraging throughout East Africa, swallowing up everything they pass through, posing a huge threat to the food supply and livelihoods of millions of people. Desert locusts began sweeping across East Africa in early 2020, devouring crops and vegetation. The disaster reached a historic level, with 10 countries in the Horn of Greater Africa and Yemen infected. Some areas of East Africa, such as Kenya, have never had such a severe desert locust disaster in more than 70 years.
▲"Wildlife" Author: Graeme Purdy (UK)
This series of images were taken with a wide-angle lens and a wireless trigger. These iconic wild animals are too dangerous to get close to each other, and this unique perspective shows the primitive beauty and power of wild animals. All animals are wild and free. Hopefully, by empathizing more, we can learn to protect them.
▲《Sea Drop》 Author: Angel Fitor (Spain)
"Sea Drop" is an experimental project aimed at exploring the life in sea water droplets by using a laboratory micro pipette and self-designed micro-device. The project captures live plankton in particularly bright water droplets, which are in the range of 200 to 1500 microns in size. From the charming beauty of aquamarine to the mysterious dance of fascinating link insects, this project opens a drop-shaped window leading to a new world. All specimens were carefully processed under the professional guidance of biologists and then released back to the sea.
shortlisted work
▲《Beluga Whale》 Author: Aleksander Nordahl (Norway)
This is the story of a white whale named Hvaldimir and a fisherman named Joar Hesten.In the summer of 2020, Joar Hesten rescued Hvaldimir from the straps wrapped around him in the cold Arctic waters. During that summer and autumn, he often visited Hvaldimir, took care of it, and discussed with nearby fishermen how to protect it. Now Hvaldimir is protected and has become an Instagram star.
▲"Night of the Leopard" Author: Will Burrard-Lucas (UK)
Leopard in Lekipia County, Kenya is a wild animal that is elusive at night. This series of photos is taken with a high-quality camera capture system, illuminated by the moonlight and the stars at night. Black Panther has not been scientifically recorded in Africa for more than 100 years, but photographers have spent more than a year photographing the black panther, which is very rare in this place. 'Spot' leopard should be the parent of this black panther. It's really a huge challenge to work with such an unusual animal on a dark night.
▲《Save Chimpanzees in Congo》 Author: Brent Stirton (South Africa)
The jungle meat trade in the Congo Basin is the largest in the world. Chimpanzees are often shot and traded, and their children may be sold. Rescuing young orangutans is very difficult, and the care they need to survive is similar to the care they need for human babies – a process that often exhausts the whole day. Many of the caregivers of young orangutans in this refuge are victims of war, and they regard caring for chimpanzees as healing themselves, just as they are healing chimpanzees.
▲"Hidden Beauty of Fruits" Author: Levon Biss (UK)
This series displays some historical fruit science collection specimens from the Royal Botanical Garden of Edinburgh (RBGE). Many specimens date back to the early 19th century and were collected by botanists of the time, including those collected by the Challenger Expedition from 1872 to 1876. The detailed features of these specimens were previously too small to be observed with the naked eye and are usually only visible under a microscope. Now, by using photo overlay technology and a customized camera system, we can see the details without having to go through a microscope, providing us with a way to observe an invisible world.
