Sony Photo Awards: 12 STUNNING shots!

The 2015 edition of the Sony World Photography Awards, the world's biggest photography competition, has announced the shortlists for its Professional, Open and Youth competitions. Recognising and rewarding the world's best contemporary photography, the 2015 competition received the highest number of entries in its eight year history -- 173,444 images from 171 countries.

World Photography Organisation provided Rediff.com with some spectacular shortlisted entries. Check out Part-I of the photo feature!

Photograph: Adi Dekel/Israel/Shortlist/Portraits/Youth Award/2015 Sony World Photography Awards

Jump!



Image: One of the traditional attractions of Indonesia culture is Bujang Ganong, where men jump into a circle of fire.
Photograph: Aprison Aprison/Indonesia/Shortlist/Open Arts/Culture/2015 Sony World Photography Awards

Exuberance

Photograph: Christine Kapuschinsky Johnson/Austria/Shortlist/Smile/Open/2015 Sony World Photography Awards

Restricted Areas



Image: The project 'Restricted area' is about utopian strife of humans for technological progress. I travel in search of places which used to have great importance for the technical progress -- and which are now deserted. Those places lost their significance together with the utopian ideology which is now obsolete. Secret cities that cannot be found on maps, forgotten scientific triumphs, abandoned buildings of almost inhuman complexity. The perfect technocratic future that never came. 
Photograph: Danila Tkachenko/Russia/Shortlist/Landscape/Professional Competition/2015 Sony World Photography Awards

Frog story



Image: Three cute frogs in the morning light
Photographer: Harfian Herdi/Indonesia/Shortlist/Nature & Wildlife/Open/2015 Sony World Photography Awards

Swedish dads



Image: Meet Ola Larsson, 41 years old, purchaser, on leave with his son Gustav, for eight months. No other country provides such generous terms of parental leave as Sweden. The current system allows parents to stay at home with their child during 480 days in total, while receiving an allowance from the state. Out of these 480 days, 60 must be taken by the father or else are lost. 
Photograph: Johan Bavman/Sweden/Shortlist/People/Professional Competition/2015 Sony World Photography Awards

Smile



Photograph: Joseph Makeni/Kenya/Shortlist/Smile/Open/2015 Sony World Photography Awards

Animal Behaviour



Image: In the series I have constructed still live images using cats. Animals have their own will and they will not pose at the behest of the photographer.
Photograph: Kimmo Metsaranta/Finland/Shortlist/Still Life/Professional Competition/2015 Sony World Photography Awards

Sweat and blood



Image: In the Ryogoku district of Tokyo are many heyas (beyas) -- training quarters, where sumo wrestlers train and live. Very few of them let outsiders into a heya to watch their practice. However, if one has a special invitation or is lucky then the experience of seeing the national sport of Japan at close distance and the wrestlers in all their sweat and blood is unforgettable. And if you are extremely lucky you can even rub shoulders with the great Yokozuna himself.
Photograph: Marcin Klocek/TRAVELLER/Poland/Shortlist/Sport/Professional Competition/2015 Sony World Photography Awards

On the Tundra...



Image: A Young Nenets boy plays in minus-40 degree on Yamal in the winter in Siberia.
Photograph: Simon Morris/United Kingdom/Shortlist/Smile/Open/2015 Sony World Photography Awards

First Sight



Image: Blind Kolkata girls Sonia, 12, and Anita Singh, 5, were born into poverty with congenital cataract blindness. They must accompany their parents everywhere as they cannot be left alone without risk. The surgery to cure this is simple and takes 15 minutes but because of the level of poverty in this family they have been unable to pursue the necessary operation. India has more than 12 million blind, the majority of which suffer from cataract blindness. Poverty is the main reason these millions of people are trapped in this condition. Donor funding has recently enabled both sisters to finally go for this operation. This essay is an attempt to tell the story of their lives before surgery, during the operation to regain their sight and after as they begin to discover light.
Photograph: Brent Stirton/South Africa/Shortlist/Contemporary Issues/Professional/2015 Sony World Photography Awards

Futuristic Archaeology



Image: Still 35 per cent of Mongolians are living a nomadic life and depend on their land for survival. This is increasingly difficult due to serious changes: 25% of the Mongolianland has turned into desert in the past 30 years. Potentially 75% of Mongolian territory is at risk of desertification. These environmental changes directly threaten the Mongolian nomadic way of life, which has been passed from generation to generation. This project attempts at recreating the museum diorama with actual people and their livestock in a real place where decertifying in Mongolia. It is based on an imagination that these people try to go into museum diorama for survival in the future. This is accomplished with printed images on a billboard placed in conjunction with the actual landscape horizon. I hope to accomplish a sense that the lives of these nomadic people occur between this reality and a virtual space of a museum. Mongolian traditional nomadic lifestyle might exist only in the museum in the future.
Photograph: Daesung Lee/Republic of Korea/Shortlist/Conceptual/Professional Competition/2015 Sony World Photography Awards