Renowned American photographer William Eggleston has been announced as the recipient of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards’ Outstanding Contribution to Photography award.

Eggleston will be honoured at the Sony World Photography Awards Gala Ceremony in London on Thursday 25 April. A special display of his work will be shown at Somerset House as part of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition and rarely seen images will be published in the 2013 edition of the Sony World Photography Awards winners’ book.

Recognised today as the pioneer of colour photography and the personal documentary style, William Eggleston has been producing cutting-edge work for over fifty years. Since first picking up a camera in 1957, Eggleston’s work is said to find ‘beauty in the everyday’. His images capture the ordinary world around him, creating interest through sharp observation, dynamic composition and great wit.

His ground-breaking 1976 show at the Museum of Modern Art, New York moved colour photography from the field of advertising to being recognised as an artform unto itself. His influence on contemporary photography and photographers is far-reaching and has inspired the likes of Martin Parr, Sofia Coppola, Andreas Gurksy and Juergen Teller.

The World Photography Organisation on Tuesday revealed the winners for the Open, Youth and 3D categories of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards. With photographers from as far apart as Chile to Vietnam, the winning images capture in a single shot a huge variety of subjects from the moment before a couple get married to the Mangystau night sky in Kazakhstan and the ‘Fung Shun’ fire dragon dance in Southern China, plus much more.

Open category winners

Judged on a single image taken by an amateur photographer, the winning Open category photographers were selected from nearly 55,000 entries. The winners are:

• Architecture - Martina Biccheri, Italy
• Arts and Culture - Gilbert Yu, Hong Kong
• Enhanced - Hoang Hiep Nguyen, Vietnam
• Low Light - Elmar Akhmetov, Kazakhstan
• Nature & Wildlife - Krasimir Matarov, Bulgaria
• Panoramic - Yeow Kwang Yeo, Singapore
• People - Hisatomi Tadahiko, Japan
• Smile – Ming Hui Guan, China
• Split Second - Matías Gálvez, Chile
• Travel - Manny Fajutag, Philippines

The Renaissance Photography Prize is an international photography competition which raises money to support younger women with breast cancer. By entering, you get the chance to have your work judged by some of the top names in photography, be exhibited in London and win great prizes. But you'll also be donating to breast cancer as all profits from the entry fees are donated to The Lavender Trust at Breast Cancer Care.

Enter now! Final deadline is 28 April, 2013, but enter before 15 March to get a 20% discount. There are over £5,000 worth of prizes to be won and the winning series will be published in HotShoe Magazine.

Renaissance is a not-for-profit association run by volunteers. All profits go to charity. Our committee and judges give their time and expertise for free which has allowed us to raise £200,000 in the six years since we started.

Stop43 co-founder Paul Ellis responds to attack by Lord Howarth

"Early in the morning on Thursday 7th March I took a call from a lawyer friend who said: “It looks to me as if you’ve just been slandered under Parliamentary privilege.” He was referring to a speech made the previous evening by Lord Howarth (1), (2) during the Report debate about the copyright clauses in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill."

Read the entire, very interesting exchange, Lord Howarth's logical fallacy, at Stop43.org

Find out more about what ERRB means to creatives.