Norwegian photographer lands $25k Sony title

^{Picture credit: © Andrea Gjestvang/Moment, Norway, Winner, Professional People, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards}

The 32-year-old professional was tonight crowned Photographer of the Year, beating more than 120,000 images to pocket the $25,000 top prize, along with the coveted L’Iris d’Or and Sony camera gear.

Gjestvang’s images – a series called ‘One Day in History’ – portray youngsters who survived the 22 July 2011 shootings on Utoeya, the island outside Oslo where a separate car bomb had exploded earlier that day.

Anders Behring Breivik later admitted to carrying out the twin attacks, which killed 77 people.

Among the young survivors pictured in Gjestvang’s portfolio is Ylva Schwenke, now aged 15 (pictured above), who had hidden from the killer near a path, but was shot in the shoulder, stomach and legs.

Another shows Iselin Rose Borch, also 15 (pictured below), who was rescued by tourists in a boat. She said: ‘In the period after Utoeya I had a really hard time sleeping. I was afraid of the dark and suffered from dreadful nightmares.

‘My mom and I decided that getting a dog might help me, so I got Athene. Now she sleeps on top of my stomach every night.’

Judges described Gjestvang’s photos – which came first in the People category – as sensitive, honest and an ‘enduring testament to the resolve of these young people in the face of this unspeakable tragedy’.

Catherine Chermayeff, director of Special Projects at Magnum Photos, and chair of the judging panel, added: ‘The entire jury was unanimous in selecting this body of work. “One Day in History” is a quiet, thoughtful and ultimately powerful voice for the children and survivors of the massacre in Norway.

‘We were all moved by the dignity and beauty of these images.’

Gjestvang’s images were published in a book in Norway last year.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese amateur photographer Hoang Hiep Nguyen, who bought his first digital camera just a year ago, scooped the Open Photographer of the Year award.

He wins $5,000 and a Sony Alpha 77 camera.

AP Editor Damien Demolder, who chaired the Open contest, said: ‘Nguyen’s picture [see below] is the standout image of the Open competition with its intense romantic atmosphere and its sense of mystical fantasy.

‘It is a delightful image that really sums up the amazing level of creativity and skill that today’s amateur photographers are capable of, and a supremely worthy winner of this globally prestigious competition.’

Alecsandra Dragoi, 19, from Romania, who is studying in the UK, clinched the Youth Photographer of the Year title with a ‘striking’ image of a New Year festival.

Meanwhile, this year’s Student Focus Photographer of the Year was awarded to Natalia Wiernik from Poland.