Sony World Photography Awards 2009: Amateur Winners

Each of the photographers on the list will be exhibited and honoured at the Sony World Photography Awards ceremony at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France, on Thursday 16 April.

The winning amateur photographer, selected from the eight category finalists, will receive a $5,000 cash prize and Sony camera equipment.

Architecture: David Watts (UK) - Persepolis: Iranian tourists visiting Persepolis

Conceptual & Constructed: Vladimir Melnik (Russia) Surfing the Net in the middle of nowhere: Taken in the internet cafe of the small Moroccan village of Merzouga at the edge of the Sahara desert

Natural History: Vincent Foong (Singapore) - Perfect Landing: This Lesser Adjutant executes a perfect landing on a disused wooden pile. Because of its size, not all landings are perfect

Portraiture: Claire Martin (Australia) - Cream Pie: Tony has been addicted to heroin for 25 years. He contracted AIDS as a result of his addiction and his health is rapidly declining. Here he eats cream pie that I bought in an attempt to get him to eat

Landscape: Guiseppe Paisi (Italy) - Out Of My Reach: A branch pointing towards the sea conveying the concept of an impossible achievement of the goal

Fashion: Christo Stankulov (France) - Hymn For Her

Music: Josef Hinterleitner (Austria) - Falschspieler
Sport: Lorenz Holder (Germany) - Twilight zone: This picture was made on a trip to Hamburg, Germany. We got some snow from the local skidome and drove it to the harbour area to built a jump for a snowboarder. After a couple of tries Xaver Hoffmann landed this sweet trick perfectly. I used a long exposure (two seconds) to get some more atmosphere in the picture. For freezing the snowboarder I used two flashes that I triggered with some radio triggers. The warmer light on the left was from a regular light that gave Xaver the chance to see something in the dark night. The colder spotlight on the right was from one of my flashes.