Sony World Photography Awards 2015 Adds Smartphone Pics Category

Major camera makers like Canon have been feeling the sting of smartphone cameras for a while now, and the increasing quality of mobile phone cameras means that more people are electing to forgo buying a traditional camera in favor of a higher end handset. Perhaps the best example of how far smartphone cameras have come is the World Photography Organisation's latest award category: Mobile Phone. Says the organization, "Photography now exists in our pockets, and we want to celebrate this."

The WPO took some time to explain why it decided to add an award competition for mobile phone photography, and one of the biggest reasons had to do with proliferation. "There is now more mobile devices in the world than there are human beings," says the group. In addition, the rate at which phones are growing eclipses that of humans. That is to say, there are a lot of smartphones out there.

In addition, the Sony World Photography Awards competition is seeing increasingly high numbers of submissions, and so it felt that adding this new category would help ensure that some shots wouldn't end up buried in the glut of submissions.

The 2015 Mobile Phone Award category launched on Tuesday, at which point the WPO began accepting submissions from those hoping their mobile snapshots have what it takes to compete. Interested parties will be able to enter the competition up through February 27.

SOURCE: WPO