2024 Sony World Photography Awards: Winners revealed

Pavy’s documentary project explores the lasting affects of birth-control practices carried out on Inuit Greenlanders by Danish doctors in the 1960s and 1970s.

The series examines the spiralkampagnen ("coil campaign") in which several thousand Inuit women and girls, some as young as 12, were fitted with an intrauterine device (IUD) without their consent.

The photos range from shots of the city of Nuuk and its clinical spaces, to X-ray imagery and archival photographs of the young women involved.

Naja Lyberth, a psychologist in Nuuk, was one of the first to testify about her forced sterilisation. She set up a Facebook group to allow women to share their common experiences and help each other cope with the trauma.

Jytte Lyberth was 14 years old at the time she had the IUD inserted. Since then, she has never been able to have children.

Jytte Lyberth at the age of 14, at the time she had the IUD inserted

Monica Allende, who chaired the 2024 Professional competition jury, praised Pavy’s "empathetic portrayal of her subjects, capturing them in a manner that is both dignified and profoundly intimate, thereby highlighting her exceptional talent".

Pavy’s work triumphed in the Documentary Projects category of the Professional competition.

Here are the other category winners, alongside comments from the photographers.

Architecture & Design

Sala Mayor (Living Room) by Siobhán Doran

"This series is part of a book project, Houses that Sugar Built: An Intimate Portrait of Philippine Ancestral Homes, for which I was granted access to these historic mansions.

"The sala mayor (main living room) typically showcases the character of the architecture and the lifestyle of the people, but also leaves room for the viewer’s interpretation of these unique residences."

Creative

A Thousand Cuts by Sujata Setia

"A Thousand Cuts is an ongoing series of portraits and stories that present a photographic study of patterns of domestic abuse in the South Asian community.

"The continuous act of chipping at the soul of the abused is expressed by making cuts on the portrait of the participant, while the prints are made on thin paper to depict the fragility of the existence."

Environment

Echoes of the Hive by Mahé Elipe

"In March 2023, a tragic fate befell more than 100 beekeepers [in Hopelchén, Campeche in south-east Mexico]. Their Melipona bees were poisoned by fipronil, an insecticide that is banned in most countries in Europe, but is still permitted in Mexico.

"This tragedy left deep scars on the Mayas, whose survival is intertwined with the golden nectar of the Melipona."

Landscape

The Sacrifice Zone by Eddo Hartmann

"This series explores a remote area of Kazakhstan known as ‘The Polygon’, which was once home to the Soviet Union’s major nuclear testing facilities.

"The location is still heavily contaminated and can only be accessed in protective clothing.

"The images in this series were made using an infra-red camera, which hints at a menace that is equally invisible to the human eye: the radiation resulting from the nuclear explosions."

Portfolio

Portraits and Landscapes by Jorge Mónaco

"My goal is to create projects that shed light on the lives of people from minority groups, whether they are ethnic, religious or gender-related.

"Through my images, I aim to raise awareness and promote inclusion, offering a reflective perspective on human diversity."

Portraiture

Father and Son by Valery Poshtarov

"While posing, fathers and sons hold hands for the first time in years, sometimes decades. It’s a powerful moment, often filled with hesitation or even resistance.

"This act of intimacy became the project’s main purpose, the photographs being just a mere testament to the long-unspoken love between the men."