He might be 80 but Sebastiao Salgado, the Brazilian photojournalist who has spent five decades chronicling the world around us, is not ready to hang up his camera yet.
Salgado, known in particular for his work in the Amazon, insists there is still a need to “raise awareness” about the deforestation of the planet.
He might be 80 but Sebastiao Salgado, the Brazilian photojournalist who has spent five decades chronicling the world around us, is not ready to hang up his camera yet.
Salgado, known in particular for his work in the Amazon, insists there is still a need to “raise awareness” about the deforestation of the planet.
He might be 80 but Sebastiao Salgado, the Brazilian photojournalist who has spent five decades chronicling the world around us, is not ready to hang up his camera yet.
Salgado, known in particular for his work in the Amazon, insists there is still a need to “raise awareness” about the deforestation of the planet.
He might be 80 but Sebastiao Salgado, the Brazilian photojournalist who has spent five decades chronicling the world around us, is not ready to hang up his camera yet.
Salgado, known in particular for his work in the Amazon, insists there is still a need to “raise awareness” about the deforestation of the planet.
He might be 80 but Sebastiao Salgado, the Brazilian photojournalist who has spent five decades chronicling the world around us, is not ready to hang up his camera yet.
Salgado, known in particular for his work in the Amazon, insists there is still a need to “raise awareness” about the deforestation of the planet.
The overall winners of the 2024 Sony World Photography Awards have been revealed. This year’s selection of images showcases a sublime mixture of unspoiled landscapes, amazing animals, and extraordinary people going about their lives.
Now in its 17th year, the Sony World Photography Awards celebrates powerful photographs that resonate with audiences worldwide. Read on for a look at some competition standouts, and be sure to head to the gallery to see a selection of our favorite photographs from this year’s winners.
The prestigious Photographer of the Year prize, which includes US$25,000 and Sony photography gear, was awarded to France’s Juliette Pavy for her photo series Spiralkampagnen: Forced Contraception and Unintended Sterilisation of Greenlandic Women.
The haunting series draws attention to the lasting impact of a forced birth control campaign led by Danish authorities in Greenland in the 1960s and 1970s, in which several thousand Inuit women and children were implanted with intrauterine devices without their consent.
Juliette Pavy, France, Photographer of the Year, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
“‘I am truly honored to be named the Photographer of the Year and for my work to be recognized among such a remarkable selection of projects and stories celebrated here tonight,” said Pavy. “With this award I hope to give a voice to those who were silenced for almost half a century, and to all the women in the world who are constantly fighting for their rights. By telling this story, I want to raise awareness of the violence against Inuit women and the social and psychological repercussions of this forced contraception campaign, and the unintended sterilisation of many of its victims.”
Liam Man, United Kingdom, Open Photographer of the Year, Open Competition, Landscape, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
The UK’s Liam Man has been declared Open Photographer of the Year for his photograph Moonrise Sprites over Storr. This stunning image captures a rock formation named the Old Man of Storr on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, highlighting the rugged mountainous landscape and the winter sky.
The shot was challenging to realize and was taken at night and lit both by drone lights and the rising moon during a powerful blizzard.
Ian Ford, United Kingdom, Winner, Open Competition, Natural World & Wildlife, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
Ian Ford, again from the UK, won the Natural World & Wildlife Category for this photo titled Caiman Crunch. Nearing the end of his adventure on the São Lourenço River in Brazil, he was told that a jaguar had been spotted nearby. Racing to the spot, he happened upon a female stalking her prey and was perfectly positioned as she pounced on an unsuspecting caiman.
Source: World Photography Organisation
Microsoft’s AI app VASA-1 makes photographs talk and sing with believable facial expressions
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A team of AI researchers at Microsoft Research Asia has developed an AI application that converts a still image of a person and an audio track into an animation that accurately portrays the individual speaking or singing the audio track with appropriate facial expressions.
The team has published a paper describing how they created the app on the arXiv preprint server; video samples are available on the research project page.
The research team sought to animate still images talking and singing using any provided backing audio track, while also displaying believable facial expressions. They clearly succeeded with the development of VASA-1, an AI system that turns static images, whether captured by a camera, drawn, or painted, into what they describe as “exquisitely synchronized” animations.
The group has proven the effectiveness of their system by posting short video clips of their test results. In one, a cartoon version of the Mona Lisa is performs a rap song; in another, a photograph of a woman has been transformed into a singing performance, and in yet another, a drawing of a man delivers a speech.
In each of the animations, the facial expressions change along with the words in a way that emphasizes what is being said. The researchers note also that despite the life-like nature of the videos, closer inspection can reveal flaws and evidence that they have been artificially generated.
The research team achieved their results by training their app on thousands of images with a wide variety of facial expressions. They also note that the system currently produces 512-by-512-pixel imagery running at 45 frames per second. Also, it took an average of two minutes to produce the videos using a desktop-grade Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU.
The research team suggests that VASA-1 could be used to generate extremely lifelike avatars for games or simulations. At the same time, they acknowledge the potential for abuse and are therefore not making the system available for general use.
More information:
Sicheng Xu et al, VASA-1: Lifelike Audio-Driven Talking Faces Generated in Real Time, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2404.10667
Project page: www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/vasa-1/
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