Argentina wins award for Photographer of the Year at the Sony Awards

The Argentine artist Alejandro Chaskielberg won the L'Iris D'Or for best photographer of the year, given by the Sony World Photography Awards, one of the most prestigious awards in the world of photography.

The award ceremony took place on Wednesday in London. The competition, which awards professional and amateur photographers, in 2011 attracted a record number of participants - were more than 105 000 entries from 162 countries.

Chaskielberg won the L'Iris D'Or with images of inhabitants of the islands of Paraná River Delta, north of Rosario, Argentina. The river passes through Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Images of Argentina also ranked first in the category 'People'.

Among amateur photographers, the Brazilian Carlos Henrique Reinesch was the winner in the category 'Smiles', with a picture of a smiling man amputated while selling tapes of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim, Bahia.

The chairman of the Sony World Photography Awards, Francis Hodgson, said jurors had no difficulty in choosing the images of Argentine Chaskielberg. "These images are carefully targeted include solid truths - about hard work, community and economic survival marginal - one way richly allusive, "he said.

In professional competition, the images were divided into 15 separate categories of three genres - photojournalism and documentaries (category News, Contemporary Issues, People, Art and Culture, and Sport), Visual Arts (Architecture, Portrait, Landscape, Still Life and Conceptual) and Trade (Campaign, Travel, Lifestyle, Still Life and Fashion).

Already amateurs were divided into ten categories: Action; After Darken, Architecture, Art and Culture, Fashion, Nature and Wildlife, Panoramic, People, Travel and smiles.