Canon announced the winners of the New Cosmos of Photography 2016. The jury of excellence selection was made up of professional photographers and international art exhibitors and selected seven Excellence Award winners and 14 Honorary Prize winners from a total of 1.723 participants, an increase of 14% over the previous year.
This year, the Honorary Distinction Award was awarded to Germany's Benjamin Breitkopf. His participation consisted of a visual exhibition on the political, historical and cultural situation regarding the revolution in Ukraine in 2014. It records not only the unique characteristics των τοπίων της χώρας, τα αστικά τοπία και τους ανθρώπους, αλλά επίσης και τις πολιτιστικές καταβολές και πρακτικές, τις ιεροτελεστίες, τις θρησκευτικές πεποιθήσεις και τις παραδόσεις, τα δημοτικά songand conflicting opinions. 
All of this together provides an in-depth look at the Ukrainian cultural identity during a time of rapid change for this nation. The judges were fascinated by Breitkopf's approach, using a three-channel video recording facility, reflecting the multiple levels and voices presented in this work.
All the images that were awarded at this year's competition will be exhibited at the New Cosmos of Photography Tokyo Exhibition (29 October - 20 November 2016) where he will be named the winner of the Grand Prix.
The Grand Prize will come with a cash prize of 1 million Japanese yen and the right totreatments personal exhibition at the New Cosmos of Photography 2017. The remaining winners of Excellence and Honorable Mentions awards will also receive cash prizes and the right to exhibit their best creations at this year's exhibition.
"We are delighted to see even more international photographers participating in the New Cosmos of Photography competition," commented Junko Kimura, General Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility, Canon Inc.
"Every day, we see hundreds of images and in this competition we expand the horizons of photography. It is amazing to see the creative ways and the unexpected perspectives that the participants use to convey their ideas, through the image ".
For more information on this year's New Canon Cosmos of Photography, visit the relevant site: www.canon.com/scsa/newcosmos/
The winners of the Canon New Cosmos of Photography competition 2016:
Winners of Excellence Awards:
- Sonoko Sakurai (selected by: Anna Dannemann)
- Kim Sajik (selected by: Osamu James Nakagawa)
- Yuu Matsui (chosen by: Erin O'Toole)
- Kuta Takashima (selected by: Hiraki Sawa)
- Takuya Matsuura (selected by: Tomoko Sawada)
- Natsumi Kawai (selected by: Toshio Shibata)
- Kim Hyunseok (selected by: Minoru Shimizu)
Award Winners of Honorary Distinctions:
- Benjamin Breitkopf, Sayako Kazui (selected by: Anna Dannemann)
- Hideaki Maki, Hiroshi Miyamoto (selected by: Osamu James Nakagawa)
- Takayuki Narita, Mone Kobayashi (Selected by: Erin O'Toole)
- Kohei Fujisawa, Snack Sono (selected by: Hiraki Sawa)
- Toshihiro Anzai, Yu Nozaki (selected by: Tomoko Sawada)
- Kenta Okamoto, Sakiko Kanno (selected by: Toshio Shibata)
- Hiroyuki Otsuka, Kazuomi Itou (selected by: Minoru Shimizu)
