Sony Alpha Awards 2020 Winners Announced

3 July 2020

The winners of the 2020 Sony Alpha Awards have just been announced, with the title of overall Grand Prize winner 2020 awarded to Oscar Hetherington from Otago, New Zealand, for his image, Back Wash.

© Oscar Hetherington - 'Back Wash' - overall Grand Prize Category Winner

Now in its fifth year, the Alpha Awards aim to celebrate photographs captured by Australian and New Zealand photographers which are taken on Sony Alpha cameras and lenses.

The purpose of the competition is to 'inspire creativity and passion among photographers across the board', and the competition recognises the work of both professional and amateur photographers.

© Benjamin Lane - 'Wild love' - Wedding category winner

© Alex Marshall - 'A celebration of solitude' - Youth category winner

From a pool of over 3000 entries, 12 category winners were chosen by a panel of 26 judges. Each category winner has been awarded AUD $2000 worth of Sony gear, and Oscar Hetherington, the Grand Prize Winner has taken home AUD $10 000 worth of Sony equipment.

Addtionally, this year, the overall Grand Prize winner was judged by Scott Gray, CEO of the World Photography Organisation.

© Ilan Wittenberg - 'Timid' - Editorial category winner

Commenting on his experience judging the overall Grand Prize, Scott Gray said, “It is incredibly challenging selecting a single winning image that sees one comparing astrophotography with portrait, but I was looking for something that upheld the diversity of the awards but also reflected in the creativity of the photographers participating as well as the beauty of the medium itself."

© Simon Runting - 'A red billed gull' - Nature category winner

Speaking to the reason that Hethrington's work stood out to him, Gray continued, "It is very difficult to capture a single image which is engaging, elegant and timeless which is why I chose Oscar Hetherington’s “Back Wash”."

"The sea is a vast, breath-taking, intimidating and constantly changing force that is difficult to compartmentalise into a single image and I believe this image goes a long way in achieving that; it is both breath-taking and calm. A wonderful angle and really succinct frame; it is an image that will stand the test of time and one would never tire of looking at it.”