Sony World Photography Awards 2016: shortlist revealed

Baku. 26 February. REPORT.AZ/ From the hard-hitting photos telling major news stories to private moments captured delicately, the Sony World Photography Awards shortlist honouring the best behind the lens is strikingly wide-ranging, Report informs citing The Independent.

The 2016 judges were impressed by the original and strong sense of empathy showcased in a record 230,103 images from 186 countries, making whittling the submissions down no easy task.

Twenty-one British photographers are included on the shortlist across three levels - Professional, judged on a series of images, Open, judged on a single shot and Youth, for photographers aged 19 and under.

Giles Clarke’s piece focuses on severely disabled children in Bhopal, India, who were born to parents contaminated by water poisoned in the 1984 Union Carbide gas tragedy, while Lucy Nicholson’s image demonstrates the harsh effect of California’s four-year drought on its farming community.

David Chancellor examines wildlife trophy hunters in the wake of Cecil the Lion’s controversial death and Peter Dench tackles Brits abroad with his photo portrait of “one nation, slowly turning pink under a foreign sun”.