"Milky Way in the Salzkammergut" Photo Wins Sony World Photography Award 2022
An amateur photographer from Vienna won the Sony World Photography Award 2022 for Austria. Read more about the talented young photographer and see her incredible photo of the Milky Way in the Salzkammergut.
"Milky Way in the Salzkammergut" by Sonja Ivancsics. / Picture: © Sonja Ivancsics, Austria, Winner, National Awards, Sony World Photography Awards 2022
The World Photography Organization and Sony have announced the winner of this year’s National Award for Austria, Sonja Ivancsics.
The amateur photographer from Vienna won the award with her photo of the Milky Way in the Salzkammergut.
Her picture will be on display together with all other winners of this year's awards at Somerset House in London from April 13.
The National Awards program is an initiative by the World Photography Organization and Sony to support local photography communities around the world.
As part of the internationally renowned Sony World Photography Awards, 61 countries participated this year.
For the 2022 Sony World Photography Awards, more than 340,000 images were received from 211 countries, and over 170,000 were submitted for the open competition.
The images that were honored at this year's National Awards were also selected from the latter.
Sonja Ivancsics was anonymously selected by a jury for her photo of the Milky Way in the Salzkammergut region, which she submitted in the “Landscape” category of the open competition.
The Salzkammergut is an incredibly scenic resort area in Austria, stretching from the city of Salzburg eastwards along the Alpine Foreland and the Northern Limestone Alps to the peaks of the Dachstein Mountains.
Parts of the region, which includes the world-famous town of Hallstatt, were even declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.
The photo, which was taken on a picturesque night in June 2021, impressively shows the Milky Way reflected in the surrounding mountain landscape–the Dachstein with its glacier–in Lake Gosau.
The ambitious amateur photographer from the 13th district (Hietzing) in Vienna discovered her passion for photography 10 years ago.
For the past four years, she has devoted herself primarily to nature photography.
“I love being out in nature and capturing its beauty in all seasons and at all times of the day and night,” said Ivancsics.
She explained that the beautiful shot of the Milky Way in the Salzkammergut region took her a lot of time and preparation, “I planned this photo for about a year, and on this night in June 2021, the conditions were just perfect. The image is a mix of two shots, one taken at blue hour and one taken around midnight.”
As the National Award winner for Austria, Sonja Ivancsics will receive digital photography equipment from Sony and will be featured in the exhibition with the other winners at Somerset House in London from April 13 to May 2, 2022, as well as in the Sony World Photography Awards photo book.