Sony World Photography Winners and Shortlists Announced

The Sony World Photography Awards is an annual, global competition that "spotlights photographers telling the stories of our time." World Photography Organisation [sic], which manages the Sony-sponsored contest, has announced the winners of the 10 categories, as well as the shortlists for the 2024 calendar year competition.

The Sony World Photography Awards is now in its 18th season, and as one of the largest "open" competitions, sees a massive number of submissions.

Of the contest, the World Photography Oranisation says the Sony World Photography Awards "celebrates the ability of an individual photograph to capture and distil a singular moment, and to evoke a broader narrative."

This year's contest gathered over 419,000 images from entrants in more than 200 countries and territories.

The winners in each of the ten general categories, as well as the shortlists for each category, have been announced, and the overall Open Photographer of the Year will be announced on April 16th in London.

The winner will receive a $5,000 award and a range of Sony digital imaging gear.

Selected winning images will be on display at Somerset House in London from April 17th through May 5, 2025, with a travelling exhibition to follow.

ARCHITECTURE

Xuecheng Liu (China Mainland) for the photograph Center of the Cosmos, which showsNew York's iconic Times Square from above, using a very wide angle to highlight the expanse of the city.

CREATIVE

Jonell Francsco (Philippines) for Kem the Unstoppable, an elegantly photographed collage portrait, alluding to Renaissance traditions of portraiture.

LANDSCAPE

Ng Guang Ze (Singapore) for his mesmerising black-and-white shot of a stream meandering through grasslands into a lake in the distance, taken in Wenhai, Lijiang.

LIFESTYLE

Hajime Hirano (Japan) for his meticulously composed image of a street vendor selling electronic parts in Akihabara, once Japan's largest electronics town following a period of rapid economic growth in the late 1950s.

MOTION

Olivier Unia (France) for Tbourida La Chute, in which the photographer captures the danger and excitement of the moment a rider is thrown from their mount during a 'tbourida,' a traditional Moroccan equestrian performance.

NATURAL WORLD & WILDLIFE

Estebane Rezkallah (France) for The Whale Raft, depicting a group of polar bears feasting on the carcass of a whale in east Greenland.

OBJECT

Sussi Charlotte Alminde (Denmark) for Octopuses in the Sky, showcasing elaborate handmade kites at the Fanø International Kite Fliers Meeting, one of the world's largest kite flying events.

PORTRAITURE

Yeintze Boutamba (Gabon) for Encounter, a tender portrait of two people shot in the intimacy of a bedroom. The photographer wanted to immortalise this moment for the sitters.

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Khairizal Maris (Indonesia) for Celebrating Football Club Victories, which pictures the elation of fans celebrating a win by their local football club by lighting flares in Bandung, West Java.

TRAVEL

Matjaž Šimic (Slovenia) for Ask a Shaman, depicting a group of shamans in La Paz, Bolivia, where they play a major role in Native Bolivian traditional culture, shot against the brightly painted local architecture.

This year's Open competition was judged by Claudia Grimaldi Marks, Senior Manager, New Creator Strategy at Getty Images.The overall winners in the Student, Youth, Open and Professional competitions of the