Eleven Chinese photographers are today named on the shortlist of the world’s biggest photography competition, the Sony World Photography Awards – seven photographers in the Professional competition, judged on a series of images, two in the Open competition, judged on a single image, and two in the Youth competition, for photographers under the age of 19. Entries to the awards from China were up over 263 % on 2015 and the photographers were selected from a record-breaking 230, 103 entries from 186 countries to secure their place on the shortlist. The total number of entries received by the Sony World Photography Awards since its launch in 2007 has now surpassed 1 million images, reinforcing the awards’ position as one of the most respected and influential photography competitions in the world.

Selected by an expert panel of judges the shortlisted photographers are:

• Yong An He, Professional Contemporary Issues
• Liu Chengliang, Professional Candid category
• Maoyuan Cui, Professional Landscape category
• Li Feng, Professional Environment category
• Fan Li, Professional Candid and Contemporary Issues categories
• Jiaye Li, Youth Environment category
• Lijun Wang, Open Low Light category
• Longxiang Xie, Open Arts and Culture category
• Hui Zhang, Professional Architecture category
• Zhe Zhu, Professional Environment category
• Hongbo Zhu, Youth Environment category

All the shortlisted photographers are now competing to win their category and the L'Iris d'Or/ Professional, Open and Youth Photographer of the Year titles, the latest digital imaging equipment from Sony plus a share of the $30,000 (USD) grand prize, the winners will be announced at a Gala Ceremony in London 21st April.? The photographers will also have their work shown in London as part of the 2016 Sony World Photography Awards exhibition in April and May and be published in the 2016 edition of the Sony World Photography Awards book.

Courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards, for further information please visit www.worldphoto.org