2018 Sony World Photography Awards chooses Ireland’s best photograph

The Sony World Photography Awards today announce Kenneth O’Halloran as the winner of the 2018 Ireland National Award.

O’Halloran, an editorial photographer based in Dublin, won for a photograph titled Winnie. The work was selected by an expert panel of judges as the best single image taken by an Ireland photographer submitted to the 2018 Awards.

Produced by the World Photography Organisation, the Sony World Photography Awards is the world’s most diverse photography competition. The 11th edition saw a record breaking 320,000 submissions by photographers from more than 200 countries and territories, presenting some of the world’s finest contemporary photography captured over the past year.

As National Award winner, the photographer receives the latest digital imaging equipment from Sony and will be flown to London to attend the Sony World Photography Awards ceremony on April 19. The winning work will be shown at the Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition in London from April 20 – May 6 and published in the 2018 Awards’ book.

Describing the winning work, O’Halloran says: “I first met Winnie with her family at the annual Africa Day celebrations in Farmleigh House in Dublin on Sunday 21st May. I was commissioned by the Irish Times to cover the event which is a celebration of the culture, diversity and links to Ireland of the continent’s 54 countries. I photographed Winnie with two other girls, Yewande Ogunnaike and Favour Nwoga. The African girls were competing in The Miss Africa competition, all three wearing tiaras. Winnie was celebrating her first Holy Communion with her parents, brothers and sisters. The resulting image appeared in the front page of the following day’s Irish Times Newspaper. I also took a few family photographs and promised to deliver the images in person to their home at a later date. Two weeks later I delivered the photographs and spoke to Winnie’s mother about the possibility of making a portrait of her as a solitary figure, only this time using the back garden as a location.”

The photographer continues:“I am delighted to have won at the prestigious Sony World Photography Awards. It’s a great honour to be selected from such a large number of entries.”