Norwegian photographer Werner Anderson won the third price in a global Sony photo contest. The price-winning image was linked to the terror attack on Norway in 2011.
[no_toc] His picture series called Scar won the third price in the category Still Life in the professional part of the photo contest Sony World Photography Awards 2018.
Mr. Anderson’s photographs show what is left of the car bomb which exploded outside the government headquarters in Oslo, the capital of Norway, on July 22, 2011.
The Sony photo contest received a record-braking number of more than 340,000 contributions from more than 200 countries. The contest has been run 11 times.
The Sony photo contest is one of several such events supported by The World Photography Organization.
An attempt to understand
Werner Anderson explains that his contest contribution was the result of a process in which his goal was to try to understand what actually happened in Norway on the infamous day of July 22, 2011.
On that day, the Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik first blew up a bomb near the government headquarters in Oslo, the capital of Norway. Then he shot, killed and wounded a large number of young people attending a political youth camp on the island of Utøya 45 minutes drive from Oslo. Breivik killed a total of 77 people and injured a lot more on that day before he was arrested.
«The Scar series of images is an attempt to understand what happened in my usually rather peaceful home town», Mr. Anderson says in a press release issued by Sony Norway.
«The images are dark, the splinters sharp and lethal. The pictures show what was left of the car bomb which exploded in the center of Oslo on July 22», he says.
Nordic photographers faired well in the Sony photo contest. Fredrik Lerneryd from Denmark won the first price in the category called Professional Contemporary Issue, whereas the Danish photographer Rasmus Flindt Pederson won the third price in the category Professional Current Affairs & News.
25 years of experience
Werner Anderson is an Oslo-based photographer, running a company called Photography & Filmmaking. He lives just across the Oslo Fjord in the residential community of Nesodden, and he has more than 25 years of experience as a photographer and a video producer. Furthermore, he works as a PR and communications consultant.
Mr. Anderson’s portfolio includes a number of major photo projects for the Red Cross and the Norwegian charity organisation Norsk Folkehjelp, covering dangerous landmine clearing in various countries. In addition, he has worked on a large number of other photo and video projects.
