Chosen from the professional category winners of the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards, the new Sony Grant recipients are Alys Tomlinson (UK), Luca Locatelli (Italy), Tom Oldham (UK) and Balazs Gardi (Hungary).
Each photographer was given US$7.000 and the latest Sony digital imaging equipment in April 2018, along with the freedom to create entirely new work or use the grant to develop a long-term project. Taken with Sony cameras, the resulting works address global and personal concerns and were filmed in Italy, Belarus, France, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Alys Tomlinson
2018 Photographer of the Year and 1st Place, Professional Discovery category
Tomlinson used the Sony Grant to create a series called Vera, which was developed from his award-winning series, Ex-Voto. In this further work, he uses film and photography to focus on the fascinating story of a Belarusian nun. Living in a rural convent, Vera has an intense and spiritual connection with the wild horses she tends on the convent farm. Other functions include teaching vulnerable men and women (including drug addicts, ex-convicts, domestic abuse survivors and the homeless) new skills, to help them recover and find purpose in life. Influenced by Polish and Russian filmmakers, Tomlinson intimately explores Vera's story using personal accounts and drawing on history, tradition and the power of faith.
Luca Locatelli
1st place, Professional Landscape category
Locatelli has created a new body of work as part of his ongoing five-year project MATERIA: How We Live on This Planet, which explores humanity's reactions to rising environmental and population stresses on earth. He focused on capturing images of two major European cities that he believes combine tradition and modernity: London (UK) and Milan (Italy). He uses these contemporary urban landscapes to imaginatively suggest possible visions of the future.
Tom Oldham
1st place, professional portrait category
Oldham explored “Ball Culture,” LGBTQ+ community events that originated in 70s Harlem. Centered around competitions between “Houses,” the balls involve dancers performing battles and “walking” a runway in front of a judging panel. In his series titled Shoot An Arrow and Go Real High, Oldham traveled to Paris, New York and London to photograph portraits featuring the staggering variety of characters and costumes attending these events.
Balazs gardi
1st place, Professional Sport category
Gardi focuses his series Can I Play? about the healing and unifying power of football in the local immigrant community in his hometown of Oakland, California. He focuses specifically on a group of young people who have moved to the United States from places of turmoil around the world and explores how sports have helped them find an identity in their circumstances.
