Edgar Martins was named Photographer of the Year 2023 for his series “Our War,” a collection of portraits featuring Libyan subjects who resembled (or reminded him of) the late Anton Hammerl, a photojournalist shot while covering the conflict.

In a statement, Martins said receiving the $25,000 prize was “very humbling.” He described it as “quite an emotional experience because I get to honor my friend on a world stage and bring attention to the family’s plight to find his remains.”

“Our War” came about after the Portuguese photographer’s attempts to recover his friend’s body led him to Libya with the help of a smuggler. Instability in the country made his search unfeasible, so Martins instead decided to capture portraits of people who had been involved in the war.

A portrait from Edgar Martins’ winning series “Our War.” Credit: Edgar Martins

The resulting images span former fighters and civilians from both sides of the eight-month conflict that saw Gadhafi overthrown by anti-government rebels.

In a statement, prize chair Mike Trow described the project as a “powerful, personal set of portraits,” adding: “(Martins’) work highlights the lengths photographers will go to tell a story and create meaning; each image giving a sense of the journey Anton took without ever being explicit about how his life ended.”

Martins was selected from the winners of the annual awards’ 10 professional categories, which span topics from sport and landscape to the environment. Now in its 16th year, the awards attracted more than 415,000 entries in 2023, with over 180,000 of them eligible for professional categories. Organizers said this year’s competition had seen the highest number of entries in its history.

Winners of other professional categories included Chinese photographer Fan Li, recognized for his images of an abandoned cement factory; the UK’s Hugh Kinsella Cunningham, who documented the work of women’s rights activists in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and US photographer Al Bello, for his series on the first female baseball player to play in an all-male professional league.

Organizers also announced the winners of several other prizes Thursday, with photographers in the student and youth competitions among those honored. An inaugural Sustainability Prize, meanwhile, recognized the work of environmental photographer Alessandro Cinque.

Announced today, the Sony World Photography Awards 2023 aim to captivate and enthral, highlighting the art of a range of individuals working in the field – from seasoned professionals to emerging names and students. Produced by the World Photography Organisation, the prestigious competition, now in its 16th year, was conceived as a free-to-enter event to celebrate imagination, innovation, creativity and the world’s most influential artists in the global photography scene. 

As part of the reveal, acclaimed Portuguese photographer Edgar Martins scooped the Photographer of the Year title, for his series Our War, ‘an homage to Martins’ friend, photojournalist Anton Hammerl, who was killed during the Libyan Civil War in 2011’. 

The artist said: ‘It is a huge honour to be recognised and although I am philosophical about awards and the subjective nature of someone’s choice, knowing that there were over 180,000 entries to this year’s Professional competition is very humbling. In this case, it is also quite an emotional experience because I get to honour my friend on a world stage and bring attention to the family’s plight to find his remains. There’s no award that has the reach of the Sony World Photography Awards.’

Sony World Photography Awards 2023: Architecture & Design

Among the Sony World Photography Awards 2023 gongs is the Architecture & Design category, which this year saw Fan Li from China crowned top winner, for his series ‘Cement Factory’. Runners-up Servaas Van Belle from Belgium and Andres Gallardo Albajar from Spain took the second and third places respectively. 

The Professional section also includes categories for creative; documentary projects; environment; landscape portfolio; portraiture; sport; still life; and wildlife & nature. All category winners receive Sony’s digital imaging kit. 

More areas of the competition are Open Photography, which is open to non-professionals underlining the power of a single image (and went to Mexican Dinorah Graue Obscura); and Student Photography, flagging up the dynamism and potential of emerging voices in the field (won by Long Jing of the Yunnan Arts University, China). 

Separate from the latter is the Young Photographer category, which revealed its winner to be 17-year-old Hai Wang, who commented: ‘I appreciate all the attention and support the public gives to global teenage photographers. As a member of this age group, I can say that we are trying to make a change throughout the world in a brand-new way, to try not to waste a single second of our lives.’ 

A new section, the Sustainability Prize, was introduced this year, highlighting awareness of the climate crisis. Italian Alessandro Cinque, the winner, focuses on fog nets and the way they are used to capture moisture for local residents in Lima, Peru, helping to tackle chronic water shortages. 

Meanwhile, Rinko Kawauchi was acknowledged through an Outstanding Contribution to Photography prize. 

The winners’ announcement was made today (13 April 2023) at a dedicated ceremony in London’s Somerset House. Launching at the same time is the Sony World Photography Awards 2023 exhibition on site, which will run from 14 April – 1 May 2023. 

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A series of portraits paying homage to late photojournalist Anton Hammerl, who was killed during the 2011 Libyan Civil War, have won the top prize at the Sony Photography Awards 2023.

Edgar Martins was named Photographer of the Year with his collection titled Our War.

The prestigious awards, organised in collaboration with the World Photography Organisation, announced this year’s winners at a gala in London earlier this week.

Martins won the competition’s overall grand prize, including $25,000 and a range of Sony photography equipment.

His work took him to Libya in an attempt to find his friend’s remains after he was killed by Libyan militia. He was brought in covertly by a petrol smuggler and due to volatile conditions, soon realised he would not be able to carry out a thorough investigation. Instead, he used photography to “tell a story without witness, testimony, evidence or subject”.

“It is a huge honour to be recognised and although I am philosophical about awards and the subjective nature of someone’s choice, knowing that there were over 180,000 entries to this year’s Professional competition, is very humbling,” Martins said. “In this case, it is also quite an emotional experience because I get to honour my friend on a world stage and bring attention to the family’s plight to find his remains. There’s no award that has the reach of the Sony World Photography Awards.”

Martins was selected from 10 category winners of the Professional competition, who were also announced at the gala, alongside the overall winners of the awards’ Open, Youth and Student competitions.

Alessandro Cinque, from Italy, was announced as the first winner of the Sustainability Prize, developed in collaboration with the United Nations Foundation and Sony’s Picture This initiative. The $5,000 prize recognises the stories, people and organisations whose actions highlight one of the UN’s environmental Sustainable Development Goals.

Full list of award winners

Architecture & Design

Winner: Fan Li (China Mainland) for his series Cement Factory

Creative

Winner: Lee-Ann Olwage (South Africa) for her series The Right to Play

Documentary Projects

Winner: Hugh Kinsella Cunningham (United Kingdom) for his series The Women’s Peace Movement in Congo

Environment

Winners: Marisol Mendez (Bolivia) & Federico Kaplan (Argentina) for their series Miruku

Landscape

Winner: Kacper Kowalski (Poland) for his series Event Horizon

Portfolio

Winner: James Deavin (United Kingdom) for his submission Portfolio

Portraiture

Winner: Edgar Martins (Portugal) for his series Our War

Sport

Winner: Al Bello (United States) for his series Female Pro Baseball Player Succeeds in All Male Pro League

Still Life

Winner: Kechun Zhang (China Mainland) for his series The Sky Garden

Wildlife & Nature

Winner: Corey Arnold (United States) for his series Cities Gone Wild

The Sony World Photography Awards 2023 exhibition, featuring works from the main category winners and shortlisted photographers, opens at Somerset House, London, on Friday and runs until May 1

Updated: April 13, 2023, 10:00 PM

I’ve long been a believer that wildlife and landscape photography does a lot of good for wildlife by raising awareness of conservation issues. But there’s a problem that many of us don’t consider. Are you aware of what can you do to ensure your photography is doing more good than harm?

There’s an old children’s story about a king who demanded the world’s biggest birthday cake. The baker made this monstrous delight and placed it in a huge box. Inquisitive members of the royal household passed by and looked inside the box, and each was tempted to try one small piece, thinking nobody would notice. When the king’s birthday arrived, he opened the box and there was only a small crumb left.

Wildlife and landscape photographers, often unwittingly, are doing the same with the subjects they shoot. Wildlife populations are plummeting, and the world is waking up to the damage photographers do.

The Importance of Where You Live

Wherever you live, there is a certainty that it will be important to different species of creatures. The coastline where I am is next to an estuary. It teams with wildlife. The rocky and sandy shores, the tidal mudflats, and the dunes are host to an incredible variety of wildlife. Many of the birds that visit here are migratory, so this little corner of Great Britain is of global importance.

I enjoy photographing those birds and the scenery here. However, I certainly don’t consider myself a wildlife photographer. That definition is preserved for those who study the creatures and use that knowledge to understand them and their behaviors. It’s those who capture astounding photos. About a third of my bookshelves are filled with wildlife photography books because I enjoy seeing those great images. I find them inspirational but, most importantly, I can learn something about the creatures because the photographers are experts in their field. Invariably, these days, that information is about how they are at threat of being wiped out by human interference.

Worldwide, hundreds of thousands of photographers, just like me, long to take wildlife and landscape photos good enough to adorn the front cover of National Geographic Magazine. But we don’t have the time to learn the fabulous skills of Andy Rouse, Apub Shah, or Rathika Ramasamy. We are, therefore, tempted to take shortcuts and don’t bother to learn how to take photos without upsetting the wildlife. Consequently, along with the rest of humanity, we are gradually eating away at that cake. In my lifetime, nearly three-quarters of wildlife have been lost from this planet.

Bad Practice in Photography

Responsible wildlife photographers learn how to cause minimum impact on their subjects. But so many do not. Here are some examples.

Close to where I live, little owls breed (Athena noctua). Although their status is of the least concern worldwide, their numbers are declining rapidly here in the UK, probably because of intensive farming methods and the shocking loss of invertebrates and small mammals on which they feed. Just 7% of Britain’s native woodlands, where they live, are in good condition ecologically. It’s not the photographers’ fault that they are disappearing.

They live on inaccessible private land. Consequently, wildlife photographers entice them by baiting them with mealworms on a boundary fence post. This might seem harmless. After all, they are feeding the birds. However, the fence post is by a road, which increases the risk of the owls being hit by a vehicle; one of them has been. Furthermore, the post is also in the open, making these tiny birds more likely to be predated. As the owls regularly visit the same spot to get food, so too will the bigger hunters that will see the tiny owls as easy meals.

Some photographers play bird songs on their phones, which attracts others of that species. They arrive not to be photographed but to defend their territory against this nonexistent intruder. Everything birds do is about survival, so this seemingly harmless act distracts them from finding food for themselves, winning a mate, feeding their young, defending their territory from real intruders, and protecting their families from predation.

Every winter, large migratory flocks of shore birds arrive on the mud flats here to feed. They make a magnificent spectacle. Many of these migrated vast distances to get to their feeding grounds. They must replenish their energy reserves, ready to return to their nesting grounds thousands of miles away. Last year, I saw a woman run into the flock to make them take to the wing and then started photographing them with her phone. Photographers often stalk these birds, getting as close as they can to get a photo, but ultimately frightening them away.

The use of drones is increasingly restricted because of the disturbance they cause to wildlife. Even when flying 100 meters away, they can cause distress. Most unmanned aerial vehicle (AEV) pilots do not want to disturb wildlife and will ask for advice from experts. Even though they might not seem to be causing a disturbance, drones can still cause huge amounts of stress to animals and birds.

Each of those actions seems small when considered individually. The photographer probably thinks that their action alone is not causing too big a problem. However, each unwanted disturbance increases the chance of the bird being unable to cope with additional stresses in their lives. Furthermore, multiply each incident by the tens of thousands of unskilled wildlife photographers who carry out similar acts and, overall, it has a huge impact. Wildlife photography is helping to destroy wildlife.

We often see bird photographers creeping toward wildlife, putting pressure on them to the inevitable point that they fly away.

Space For Shorebirds, Northumberland UK

Landscape photographers can be equally problematic for these creatures.

Similarly, we see photographers walking in areas where birds are feeding or roosting to get into position to take a photo of one of our spectacular castles or the beautiful landscape. This can often mean hundreds of birds being disturbed, some mid-migration to West Africa and some during the depths of winter, when every calorie consumed and spent, can matter to the birds.

Space for Shorebirds, Northumberland UK

So, What Should We Do About It?

To misquote a certain superhero, with great wildlife photography comes great responsibility. The techniques used by the very best photographers to get the very best photographs are those that cause the least impact.

I asked Philadelphia zoologist and wildlife photographer Anwar Abdul-Qawi, to ask for his expert advice:

I am actually working on a presentation called “Ethical Wildlife Photography”. Mainly, it focuses on what it means to be a wildlife photographer and the footprint that we leave behind. As wildlife photographers, it is our responsibility not only to capture the beauty of the natural world but also to advocate for its protection.

The issue with wildlife photography is that there are so many different forms all over the world and what that means is that everyone comes up with their own ethical way of doing things. I advocate for whatever technique gives the least amount of stress on my subject.

No matter what we do as wildlife photographers when we are in the field, we ultimately leave some sort of environmental footprint, I just try to ensure that mine is as small as possible.

Learning From Wildlife Documentaries

I’ve watched a series of superb nature documentaries produced by the BBC, and some of their incredible footage took months or even years to achieve. We are unlikely to be able to invest that much time. What is more, nowadays, people have the desire to fill every moment with some activity, usually doing something with their cell phones. Consequently, many have lost the skill of sitting still and doing nothing. So, the temptation is to blunder into an environment, taking shortcuts to get our shots. It’s those shortcuts that are especially harmful to the animals we photograph.

You don’t have to sit on an uncomfortable platform in a tree canopy for months on end, but if staying still in a bird hide for a couple of hours and waiting isn’t your thing, then wildlife photography is probably not for you.

Simple Things to Do to Improve Your Wildlife Photography

Do your research. Speak to the naturalists in the area where you are going to shoot. Ask them about simple things you can do to get better photos in the area while safeguarding the creatures in the environment you are visiting.

There are also common things that always make a difference in your successes and bring about less impact:

The first secret to capturing great wildlife shots is patience. Keep still. Stay in one spot and wait for the action to happen.

Don’t approach your subjects, let them approach you.

If you must move, then gentle, slow movements are less likely to scare away your subjects.

Looking directly at a bird will often scare it off; two forward-facing eyes are those of a predator. Holding the camera to your face hides your eyes. But many telephoto lenses are heavy and so a good quality monopod gives you stability and movability.

Having a Positive Impact With Photography

If taking the photograph is more important to you than the welfare of the creature you are photographing, then there it’s worth taking note of a paradigm shift in wildlife photography.

While photographing birds in a nest has long been frowned upon, these days, photographers and even the people who buy photos are increasingly shunning those who show disregard for wildlife in other ways. On a scale of importance, our photographs, and our enjoyment of taking them is at the bottom and the animal or bird’s welfare is at the top. If your approach is to get the photo at any cost, your reputation will be harmed.

I can already hear the what-about brigade screaming that other human activities are far more damaging to wildlife than photography, and they are right. Most of the wildlife loss is caused by bad agricultural practices including monocultures, insecticide use, habitat destruction, over-fishing and hunting, pollution, and other exploitations of our planet. Added to this is climate change.

But that is no reason why we photographers should not do our best not to cause harm. We achieve that by discovering and employing best practices. What is more, we can even employ our skills to do some good.

You can use your photography positively by combining it with scientific research. Conservation organizations want to know the locations and nesting sites of certain birds, and one can sometimes help with counting animals or birds. There will be similar work where you live too. Often, drones can be used for surveys, and photographs of large herds and flocks can assist with counting too.

The Surprise in the King’s Box

At the end of the children’s story that I mentioned earlier, the King was happy because when he opened the box, although there was only a crumb left; it was a surprise. If photographers continue to contribute to the destruction of our wildlife, we will be in for a surprise too, just a much less pleasant one. As our wildlife fades away, from the humblest pollinating insect to the largest pachyderms, the tapestry of life on Planet Earth will continue to unravel and not having creatures to photograph will be the least of our worries.