At the start of the year, while the cultural calendar is still fresh, the dependable pleasure of the announcement of the Sony World Photography Awards shortlists comes like a delicious appetiser for the year ahead. Its the annual reminder that while the world may be in full wobble, young photographers are still looking at it with clarity, curiosity and talent.
This years Student and Youth competition shortlists, revealed this week, are a particularly bracing tonic. Drawn from more than 430,000 entries across over 200 countries and territories, the final 20 shortlisted photographers represent the sharp end of an enormous, global visual conversation. If photography is how the world explains itself to itself, then these are the voices clearing their throats before speaking loudly to anyone who wants to listen with their eyes.
The Student Competition now in its 19th year asked emerging photographers to respond to the brief Together. Its the sort of word that seems harmless until you try to define it. Togetherness can be tender or claustrophobic, political or deeply personal, chosen or enforced. The shortlisted projects embrace all of it. These arent sentimental group hugs rendered in soft focus. Theyre thoughtful, often searching visual essays that explore families, neighbourhoods, institutions and shared spaces and the invisible threads that bind people, whether they like it or not.
