American photographer Mitch Dobrowner has been announced as this year’s winner of L’Iris d’Or - the 2012 Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year.

Dobrowner was presented with the award during the Sony World Photography Awards Gala ceremony at the Hilton Hotel in London’s Park Lane for his series of black and white images, Storms.

Dobrowner was chosen as the winner of the L’Iris d’Or by a panel of nine judges. In addition to a $25,000 cash prize and Sony’s latest digital imaging camera equipment, he joins previous L’Iris d’Or winners Alejandro Chaskielberg, David Zimmerman and Vanessa Winship as a member of the World Photographic Academy.

William Klein received the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award, and Asef Ali Mohammad from Middlesex University was the student winner.

At the same event, The 2012 Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards were announced; the best photography book was selected as Carleton Watkins: The Complete Mammoth Photographs by Weston Naef and Christine Hult-Lewis. Dewi Lewis, who sits on Redeye's Advisory Group, was presented with the Outstanding Contribution to Publishing award.