2017 Sony World Photography Best Photos Will Take Your Breath Away

Space & city. Rules ordering a regular intensive repetition sum up the feeling of the modern city. A variety of urban form and minimalist architecture breaks the old structure, splitting it into triangles, squares and diamond shapes, refracting a new living style on extant spatial structures. Demonstrating a free use of the language of visual forms, it appears like a game, similar to Goldbach's conjecture; the destruction of the ossified template of the city, a visual exploration of breaking the rules. In a spatial context, when we ignore the aesthetics of the city, ignore the rules and celebrate the deconstruction and reconstruction of the urban space, the space itself gives us more control and adds more joy to the city.

China West. In western China, the pace of economic development has ushered in a new and unprecedented period of transformation, one that has radically redefined the topography of the country whilst displacing significant parts of its population from rural areas to vast, newly-built mega cities. Semi-deserted landscapes carry a profound ambivalence, suggesting at the same time fecundity and sterility, a promise and nothingness. China West is a visual exploration of the impact economic development has had on western China’s landscape, focusing on the dwindling interstice left between nature and urbanisation, a space, which, perhaps more than any other, reveals the true process of change.

I want to have an ordinary life. In November 2016, Li Hang, an eleven-year-old boy from Harbin, arrived at Changchun weight loss centre determined to lose weight. He had been diagnosed with Prader-Willi Syndrome when he was 3 years old, and on admission, his weight had reached 155 kilograms. Prader-Willi Syndrome is a disease related to an abnormality in chromosome 15, and in around 70% of patients is inherited from their father. It occurs in 1 in 15000 people. Li Hang was being treated with traditional Chinese medicine every day, including massage, acupuncture, fire treatment and cupping therapy. Aside from medical techniques, Li Hang also did a great deal of exercise daily with the fitness instructor. From his initial fear, and throughout the process, Li Hang has been greatly tormented, but he is supported by his faith in doing what is necessary to live a normal person’s life.

Dust Invasion. For more than 5 years, Khuzestan has been engulfed by dust storms. This phenomenon is an environmental crisis and poses numerous health concerns for the citizens of Khuzestan. The main center of production of dust is from inside Iran, but dusts that are blown over from neighboring country-Iraq- exacerbates the conditions. The road from Ahwaz to Mahshahr and the southern part of the Horolazim wetland are the main local regions from which the dust originates. The Southeastern region of Iraq is also a major contributing factor to the crisis. Experts believe the main cause of these dust storms to be the cessation of mulching, the growth of desertification, and destruction of the wetlands of Mesopotamia. In some days of the year, dust in some cities of Khuzestan is reported to be 767 micrograms per cubic meter rather than the standard of 150 to 250 micrograms per cubic meter. The crisis has made Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan province, to be introduced as one of the most polluted cities in the world by the World Health Organization. Every year about 22 thousand people in the province are referred to hospitals and healthcare centers due to respiratory and other problems caused by air pollution.

China West. In western China, the pace of economic development has ushered in a new and unprecedented period of transformation, one that has radically redefined the topography of the country whilst displacing significant parts of its population from rural areas to vast, newly-built mega cities. Semi-deserted landscapes carry a profound ambivalence, suggesting at the same time fecundity and sterility, a promise and nothingness. China West is a visual exploration of the impact economic development has had on western China’s landscape, focusing on the dwindling interstice left between nature and urbanisation, a space, which, perhaps more than any other, reveals the true process of change.

Louisiana Flooding. A historic flood, caused by a massive rainstorm, hit parts of Louisiana and overwhelmed local communities, causing thirteen deaths and damaging thousands of homes with flood waters.

I want to have an ordinary life. In November 2016, Li Hang, an eleven-year-old boy from Harbin, arrived at Changchun weight loss centre determined to lose weight. He had been diagnosed with Prader-Willi Syndrome when he was 3 years old, and on admission, his weight had reached 155 kilograms. Prader-Willi Syndrome is a disease related to an abnormality in chromosome 15, and in around 70% of patients is inherited from their father. It occurs in 1 in 15000 people. Li Hang was being treated with traditional Chinese medicine every day, including massage, acupuncture, fire treatment and cupping therapy. Aside from medical techniques, Li Hang also did a great deal of exercise daily with the fitness instructor. From his initial fear, and throughout the process, Li Hang has been greatly tormented, but he is supported by his faith in doing what is necessary to live a normal person’s life.

Sixteen. "Sixteen is an ongoing project looking at the experience, dreams, aspirations and fears of sixteen year olds from all walks of life in the UK. Shot on a large format field camera, the project is a collaborative process with the young people: in each case they are asked to write a personal handwritten testimony to be presented at all times alongside the photograph. The idea is to give each of the sixteen year olds a voice without the filter of a journalists questions or interpretation. At 16 you are on the cusp of adulthood, but still legally classed as a child in many ways. You are starting to take responsibility for your future and (I sincerely hope) you are full of dreams and ambitions. Many young people of course can feel hope-less, frightened and angry, already disengaged from society. These dreams, ambitions and fears, I believe, are to a large extent dictated by your environment, your family, your gender, your economic and social situation, your nationality, ethnicity etc. I am interested in how each of those factors influences what you think you can achieve; how it defines your ability to fulfill your potential. This ongoing project (I will be inviting other photographers to participate going forward) is designed to explore the feelings of sixteen year olds at a stage in life where they are making big decisions for their future in a very uncertain world."

Standing Rock. "For nearly ten months, members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and their allies have been camped in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline crossing their land and water. The estimated $3.78 bill project is nearly complete, crossing almost 1,172 miles. But the resistance has stalled development at the Missouri River. Although on it's face, the issue is the pipeline, the conflict runs much deeper and is steeped in generations of violent history. These are the people of the Battle of Little Big Horn and of Wounded Knee, who were driven to starvation by the loss of the buffalo and away from their sacred Black Hills. Police treatment of water protectors hasn't been out of step with this history. In military vehicles and body armour, police have indiscriminately used tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, percussion grenades and water canons in sub-zero temperature. Despite all of this, the pipeline is still unresolved and water protectors are still on the land. But wether the pipeline is completed or not, the groundswell created for this resistance will certainly have reverberations for industry and indigenous people alike. I spent a month and a half, over three trips with the people in the camps."

Standing Rock. "For nearly ten months, members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and their allies have been camped in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline crossing their land and water. The estimated $3.78 bill project is nearly complete, crossing almost 1,172 miles. But the resistance has stalled development at the Missouri River. Although on it's face, the issue is the pipeline, the conflict runs much deeper and is steeped in generations of violent history. These are the people of the Battle of Little Big Horn and of Wounded Knee, who were driven to starvation by the loss of the buffalo and away from their sacred Black Hills. Police treatment of water protectors hasn't been out of step with this history. In military vehicles and body armour, police have indiscriminately used tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, percussion grenades and water canons in sub-zero temperature. Despite all of this, the pipeline is still unresolved and water protectors are still on the land. But wether the pipeline is completed or not, the groundswell created for this resistance will certainly have reverberations for industry and indigenous people alike. I spent a month and a half, over three trips with the people in the camps."

Ensō. "Central themes in Jeroen De Wandel's work are time, family, alienation & astonishment, looked upon from different angles, which results in sometimes abstracted, tactile images, always connected with reality. They can switch identity in function of the place they get in a series/expo, where composition and interaction between the images is central. He tries to entice the spectator's fantasy and makes him/her travel in his/her own mind and experiences. In that way, through the images, he tries to communicate from one's mind to another and makes you think about the image, in this world where we are bombed with concrete images. Mostly starting out of personal experiences and interests (which can be an emotion, memories, old family related material, found magazines, science), sometimes from external factors, playing with reality and fantasy. It is unconscious work and too defined borders can disrupt the open mind that he tries to use to look at the world. It's autobiographic, because the way of working expresses fears and desires from the photographer's unconsciousness. Every picture is a piece of his identity, where he carefully constructs new stories which results in an own visual language. About the title: this is an ongoing series, but if it needs to have a title, Ensō would be the one to choose. The Ensō symbolizes absolute enlightenment, strength, elegance, the universe, and mu (the void). It is characterised by a minimalism born of Japanese aesthetics.

The twins' gymnastics dream. This series was taken in a sports school in Jining, in Shandong province, China. Liu Bingqing and Liu Yujie are twin sisters, who have liked gymnastics since their childhood. They have studied, trained and grown up here.

The Cave In his Cave Allegory, Plato wrote that “Chained to the wall of the cave, we only see the shadows”, a way of questioning the perception of reality. But perceiving the true form of reality must never destroy our ability to imagine, fantasise and even create images. These photographs are everyday objects photographed in the harsh sun.

Rivera Hernandez in the second city of Honduras, lives in constant war. With five warring gangs and a rate of three bodies of average daily routine is an exercise in survival.

WHITER (white water). "The project continues from my first ""Apuan Carbonate"", relative to the pollution of mountain environment in Apuan Alps, Tuscany, Italy and talks about rivers. One of the most important water reserves in Tuscany but constantly under threat by polluting action from the processing of the marble quarries waste, especially marble dust. It's called ""marmettola"" and is classified as special waste; contaminated by metals, oils and fats used in the manufacturing process, the marmettola dust should be stored and treated in landfills but often is abandoned in yards or spilled into rivers. When it rains (and in this area it happens very often) Frigido and Carrione rivers and their tributaries turn white as milk. The marmettola sludge fills the gaps between rocks and makes the riverbed waterproof, speeding the water runoff, corrupts the habitat of many animal and plant species, alters the natural supply processes of the aquifer, can causes drying of the water sources. A serious deterioration of the balance of an entire ecosystem. Secondly, the cost of the water purification increases and it's paid by inhabitants of the area. Another story of environmental devastation in a land which is already tormented by pollution, a story of neglect and selfishness in the name of profit at all costs."