Egypt National Award Winner Revealed for the 2016 Sony World Photography Awards

Egyptian photographer Hady Geneidi (19) from Cairo is today named as the winner of Egypt National Award, part of world’s biggest photography competition, the Sony World Photography Awards.

Geneidi’s winning image, 'Break Through', was chosen as the single best photograph taken by an Egyptian photographer entered into any of the awards’ ten Open categories. 

Geneidi, a fashion photographer and retoucher who is also studying business administration at Cairo University, has won a Sony A6300 and a Carl Zeiss lens SEL1670Z. In addition, the winning image will be part of the 2016 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition at Somerset House, London from 22nd April - 8th May and will be published in the annual Sony World Photography Awards book. The exhibition will also include the winning and shortlisted images of Professional, Open and Youth competitions alongside the first major European exhibition of the artistic duo and fine art photographers RongRong & inri (China/Japan), recipients of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography prize at the award. 

Talking about his winning image, Geneidi comments: "I took this photo in March 2015 in Giza, Egypt. It is me in the image, and I used a self-timer to take the photo. There are several elements in the photo, each describing something I like: the desert means deepness, the one far source of lighting represents hope, euphoria and confidence and finally the geometric shape that represents the abstract element. The geometric shape in the photo is a 50x50cm wooden object, which I made of material from a local carpenter in Cairo. I had to bring it with me to the location so I could capture it in the same environment, perspective and light as the rest of the image.”

Geneidi continues: "For me winning this competition is a challenge between me and my art not with the other participants. We are all looking for appreciation at the end."

Runner up positions for Egypt National Award were given to:

• 2nd place - Nader Saadallah 
• 3rd place - Nader Mohamed Zakaria Mohamed Elassy

The National Awards programme honours and rewards the best single image taken by a local photographer and runs in 60 countries across the world from Argentina to Australia. It is open to photographers of all abilities.  

The winners of all 60 National Awards were announced today. To see all the winning images please go to www.worldphoto.org

The Sony World Photography Awards rewards and recognises the world’s best contemporary photography from the last year.  Attracting photographers of all abilities, the awards incorporate four competitions: Professional; Open; Youth and Student.