Sony World Photography Awards 2025 category winners
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The World Photography Organisation has announced the category winners and shortlisted photographers for the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Open competition. The Open competition of the World Photography Awards is in its 18th year and aims to celebrate photographers’ ability to “distill a singular moment and to evoke a broader narrative.” Entrants submitted their strongest images from 2024 across 10 categories, including landscape, portraiture, street photography, wildlife and more.
This year, the free-to-enter competition received over 419,000 submissions from 200 countries and territories. All of the shortlisted photographs can be seen at worldphoto.org.
In addition to the category winners, the Open Photographer of the Year will be announced at an awards ceremony in London on April 16. Select winning and shortlisted images will be displayed in the World Photography Awards exhibition at Somerset House in London from April 17 to May 5 and then travel to other locations.
Architecture
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Photographer: Xuecheng Liu
Image title: Center of the Cosmos
Selected for the photograph Center of the Cosmos, which shows New York’s iconic Times Square from above, using a very wide angle to highlight the expanse of the city.
Copyright: © Xuecheng Liu, China Mainland, Winner, Open Competition, Architecture, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
Creative
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Photographer: Jonell Francisco, Philippines, Winner, Open Competition, Creative, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
Image title: Kem the Unstoppable
Selected for Kem the Unstoppable, an elegantly photographed collage portrait, alluding to Renaissance traditions of portraiture.
Copyright: © Jonell Francisco, Philippines, Winner, Open Competition, Creative, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
Landscape
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Photographer: Ng Guang Ze
Image title: None
Selected for his mesmerising black-and-white shot of a stream meandering through grasslands into a lake in the distance, taken in Wenhai, Lijiang.
Copyright: © Ng Guang Ze, Singapore, Winner, Open Competition, Landscape, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
Lifestyle
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Photographer: Hajime Hirano
Image title: None
Selected 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.
Copyright: © Hajime Hirano, Japan, Winner, Open Competition, Lifestyle, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
Motion
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Photographer: Olivier Unia
Image title: Tbourida La Chute
Selected 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.
Copyright: © Olivier Unia, France, Winner, Open Competition, Motion, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
Natural World & Wildlife
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Photographer: Estebane Rezkallah
Image title: The Whale Raft
Selected for The Whale Raft, depicting a group of polar bears feasting on the carcass of a whale in east Greenland.
Copyright: © Estebane Rezkallah, France, Winner, Open Competition, Natural World & Wildlife, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
Object
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Photographer: Sussi Charlotte Alminde
Image title: Octopuses in the Sky
Selected 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.
Copyright: © Sussi Charlotte Alminde, Denmark, Winner, Open Competition, Object, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
Portraiture
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Photographer: Yeintze Boutamba
Image title: Encounter
Selected 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.
Copyright: © Yeintze Boutamba, Gabon, Winner, Open Competition, Portraiture, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
Street Photography
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Photographer: Khairizal Maris
Image title: Celebrating Football Club Victories
Selected 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.
Copyright: © Khairizal Maris, Indonesia, Winner, Open Competition, Street Photography, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
Travel
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Photographer: Matjaž Šimic, Slovenia
Image title: Ask a Shaman
Selected 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.
Copyright: © Matjaž Šimic, Slovenia, Winner, Open Competition, Travel, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
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This article comes from DP Review and can be read on the original site.