Sony Photography Awards 2023: Tribute to slain photojournalist wins first prize

Edgar Martins was named Photographer of the Year 2023 for his series Our War, a collection of images that depict Libyans who look like (or resemble) the late Anton Hammerl, a photojournalist while covering the conflict.

Receiving the $25,000 award was “very humbling,” Martinez said in a statement. He described it as “a very emotional experience as I will be honoring my friend on the world stage and drawing attention to the family’s plight to find his remains”.

“Our War” came about after a Portuguese photographer’s attempts to retrieve his friend’s body led him to Libya with the help of a smuggler. The instability in the country made his research unfeasible, so Martins decided instead to take pictures of people who had taken part in the war.

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The resulting images include former combatants and civilians from both sides of the eight-month conflict that saw Gaddafi’s overthrow by anti-government rebels.

In a statement, award chair Mike True described the project as “a powerful portrait collection,” adding: “(Martins’) work highlights the lengths to which photographers will go to tell a story and create meaning; each image gives a sense of the journey Anton undertook without showing how His life is over.”

Martins was selected among the winners of the annual Ten Professional Categories, which include topics from sports and landscapes to the environment. Now in its 16th year, the Awards attracted more than 415,000 entries in 2023, more than 180,000 of whom qualified for the professional categories. The organizers said that this year’s competition saw the largest number of entries in its history.

Other professional category winners include Chinese photographer Fan Li, who was honored for his photograph of an abandoned cement factory; Hugh Kinsella Cunningham of the United Kingdom, who has documented the work of women’s rights activists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and American photographer Al Bello, for his series on the first female baseball player to play in the all-male professional league.

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The organizers also announced the winners of several other awards Thursday, among the photographers in the student and youth competitions. Meanwhile, the inaugural Sustainability Award honored the work of environmental photographer Alessandro Cinque.

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