The Sony World Photography Awards are just about to ring in their fifth year this Thursday (April 26th). In a similar fashion to the National Geographic’s Photography Contest and heavier photojournalism of the World Press Photo Organisation, the SWPAs are a chance for both budding and established photographers to showcase their work on an international stage.
One of the stand out pics this year for us came from Remi our Rémi Ochlik, who was killed alongside Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin in February in a shelling incident in their safe house in Syria, but in his short lifetime shot some of the most arresting and brutal images depicting wartime and conflict in Haiti, Tunisia and the Democratic Repulbic of Congo.
This stark shot of Colonel Gaddafi’s body, refrigerated for public viewings in the days after his death, illustrates two sides to the dynamic of regime change. The violence, of course, is depicted but placed alongside a rare glimpse at Gaddafi in his most vulnerable and basic state: a bare torso, which could be the body of any other citizen of his country. It strips back a layer of the dictator’s facade never seen before, and resonates as one of the strongest images from the Arab Spring.
Click the pic to have a look round the galleries.