Frederik Buyckx elected photographer of the year
Frederik Buyckx, freelance photographer for the newspaper De Standaard, has been named 2017 photographer of the year at the Sony World Photography Awards. The jury was won over by his series of photographs entitled "Whiteout", a collection of landscapes from the Balkans, Scandinavia and Central Asia.
These are the tenth Sony World Photography Awards, created by the World Photography Organisation. To enter the competition, photographers have to submit five to ten photos taken during the previous year. Frederik Buyckx's "Whiteout" series was the most successful. "Nature undergoes a spectacular transformation with the arrival of winter, when snow and ice start to dominate the landscape and people and animals have to come to terms with extreme weather conditions. This series illustrates the struggles required to not disappear", stated the winner, who is constantly seeking direct contact with nature.
The photos from the 2017 competition will be displayed in an exhibition that opens this Friday at Somerset House, London and runs until 7 May. It will also feature works by the British photographer Martin Parr, who won a special award for his contribution to photography.