Photography tutor wins Sony World Photography award
18 March 2024
Zenande, Sinawe, Zinathi and Buhle at Sea Point Pavilion, Cape Town, South Africa. Photo: Michelle Sank
Michelle Sank, a photographer and online tutor on Falmouth’s Photography MA (Online) course, has won the Portraiture Award at the Sony World Photography awards.
The World Photography Organisation recently announced the ten category winners in the open competition recognising single images from across the world in 2023. In this year’s competition, around 395,000 images from more than 220 countries and territories were submitted.
Zenande, Sinawe, Zinathi and Buhle at Sea Point Pavilion, Cape Town, South Africa. Credit: Michelle Sank
Michelle’s Sony World Photography winning image – Zenande, Sinawe, Zinathi and Buhle at Sea Point Pavilion, Cape Town, South Africa – is part of her ongoing series Ballade, a poetic homage to Cape Town.
Michelle is a South African photographer, born in Cape Town and now based in south west England. She has won multiple awards for her photography, and her work has featured in exhibitions all over the world. As an online tutor on Falmouth’s Photography MA (Online) course, she supports aspiring photographers to excel in their practices as part of a research-active academic team from Falmouth’s Institute of Photography.
On the photography series which won the award, Michelle told us: “My strongest memories are of the Sea Point Promenade in Cape Town and its accompanying Pavilion swimming pool where I frequented the long walkway - and its bordering vast grass areas - through all my formative years.
"I was born there, and my recall is one of tableaus transpiring through play, encounters and festivities. The pool, the walkway, the beaches and the green areas continue to serve as stage sets within which diverse performances unfolded.
“Returning to Cape Town, I was once again drawn to these spaces where little seems to have changed in terms of structure and recreation, but existing now with a celebration of cultural and social diversity post the Apartheid era. For many, this area is their sanctum, the public space they don’t have in private due to cramped living conditions, or because of the general pressures and continued challenges of life in South Africa.”
On winning the award, Michelle added: “It has been a real honour and particularly poignant for me as I am making work where my photographic passion first started to realise its voice, as a student at Cape Town University all those years ago.”
The overall winner of the Sony World Photography awards will be announced at a ceremony in London on 18 April.
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