Desert shots awarded photo prize

Zimmerman's images are captured in the deserts of Arizona, New Mexico, California and Nevada.

US photographer David Zimmerman has been named Sony Photographer of the Year for 2009.

His landscape series, called Desert, earned him the $25,000 (£16,800) prize in the second year of the competition.

Judge Mary Ellen Mark described the works as "a unique vision of the beauty, poetry and power possible in great landscape photography".

Zimmerman, collecting his prize in Cannes, said he hoped to raise environmental awareness with his work.

The photos show deserts in the south-west of the US, depicting them as fragile ecosystems.

Vincent Foong was awarded the title of amateur photographer of the year for his picture of a Lesser Adjutant bird attempting to land on a wooden pole.

Eleven other professional photographers collected awards in their categories, while French photographer Marc Riboud was given a lifetime acheivement award.

Riboud is a former president of Magnum Photos and one of the first European photographers to work in China.