The Sony World Photography Awards announced today the overall winners of its 18th edition at a special gala ceremony in London, bringing together leading figures in the industry to honour this year’s winners and their achievements.
The prestigious Photographer of the Year 2025 title was awarded to the acclaimed British photographer Zed Nelson for the series The Anthropocene Illusion. Nelson receives a $25,000 (USD) cash prize, a range of Sony digital imaging equipment, and the opportunity to present an additional body of work at the Sony World Photography Awards 2026 exhibition.
Nelson was selected from the 10 Professional competition category winners, who were announced at today’s ceremony, alongside the 2nd and 3rd place finalists in each category. The evening’s programme additionally recognised the overall winners of the Awards’ Open, Student and Youth competitions. Also honoured during the course of the evening was this year’s Outstanding Contribution to Photography recipient, the acclaimed documentary photographer Susan Meiselas.
Over almost two decades, the Awards have become a definitive annual moment for the discovery and celebration of contemporary photography. Each year the Awards celebrate the stories and images that shape our visual language and capture the imagination, offering a global perspective on this ever-evolving medium. The Sony World Photography Awards 2025 exhibition is on display at Somerset House, London from 17 April – 5 May, presenting over 300 prints and hundreds of images in digital displays, as well as a special presentation by Susan Meiselas.
PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
The Anthropocene Illusion is a long-term documentary project, spanning six years and four continents, which explores the deeply fractured relationship between humans and the natural world. Taking the concept of the ‘Anthropocene’, a term for the current period in Earth’s history which is characterised by humans being the dominant influence on the environment, Nelson’s series focuses on humanity’s response to its impact on the planet. The project looks at artificial spaces, created by humans as a means to ‘experience’ and interact with nature, from safari parks, nature reserves and resorts, to natural history museums, zoos and green cities. Nelson uses these constructions as a lens through which to explore the dissonance between the human desire to stay connected to nature, and the continuous environmental destruction caused by human activity.
Nelson’s urgent topic and his ability to translate complex environmental issues into striking visual narratives. The Anthropocene Illusion illustrates a world where the boundaries between the real and the artificial blur, where the wild survives in controlled enclosures, and where human nostalgia for nature is expressed through spectacle rather than action. Nelson’s work compels viewers to question their own role in this paradox and consider the consequences of a society increasingly distanced from the natural world. This timely body of work tells one of the most important stories of our age, and is now more critical than ever.’
PROFESSIONAL CATEGORY WINNERS
The winning series in the 2025 Professional competition have been selected by a panel of expert judges. Each of the winning photographers displays an original approach to narrative and exceptional technical ability.
As part of their prize this year, for the first time the Professional category winners were invited to attend Insights, a day of specialised sessions with industry experts in London. Drawn from leading institutional and commercial photography spaces, the expert speakers offered the winners their insights on ways to continue expanding their platforms and growing their reach. All of the category winners additionally receive Sony digital imaging equipment. To learn more about this year’s Professional winners and finalists, please visit worldphoto.org.
This year’s winners are:
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
WINNER: Ulana Switucha (Canada) for The Tokyo Toilet Project
Finalists: 2nd place Andre Tezza (Brazil); 3rd place Owen Davies (United Kingdom)
CREATIVE
WINNER: Rhiannon Adam (United Kingdom) for Rhi-Entry
Finalists: 2nd place Irina Shkoda (Ukraine); 3rd place Julio Etchart & Holly Birtles (United Kingdom)
DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS
WINNER: Toby Binder (Germany) for Divided Youth of Belfast
Finalists: 2nd place Florence Goupil (Peru); 3rd place Alex Bex (France)
ENVIRONMENT
WINNER: Nicolás Garrido Huguet (Peru) for Alquimia Textil
Finalists: 2nd place Maria Portaluppi (Ecuador); 3rd place Cristóbal Olivares (Chile)
LANDSCAPE
WINNER: Seido Kino (Japan) for The Strata of Time
Finalists: 2nd place Lalo de Almeida (Brazil), 3rd place Mischa Lluch (Spain)
PERSPECTIVES
WINNER: Laura Pannack (United Kingdom) for The Journey Home from School
Finalists: 2nd place Giovanni Capriotti (Italy); 3rd place Valentin Valette (France)
PORTRAITURE
WINNER: Gui Christ (Brazil) for M’kumba
Finalists: 2nd place Raúl Belinchón (Spain); 3rd place Tom Franks (United Kingdom)
SPORT
WINNER: Chantal Pinzi (Italy) for Shred the Patriarchy
Finalists: 2nd place Michael Dunn (Bolivia); 3rd place Antonio López Díaz (Spain)
STILL LIFE
WINNER: Peter Franck (Germany) for Still Waiting
Finalists: 2nd place KM Asad (Bangladesh); 3rd place Alessandro Gandolfi (Italy)
WILDLIFE & NATURE
WINNER: Zed Nelson (United Kingdom) for The Anthropocene Illusion
Finalists: 2nd place Pascal Beaudenon (France); 3rd place Kevin Shi (United States)
OPEN PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
The Open competition celebrates the power and dynamism of a single photograph. Winning photographs are selected for their ability to distil a singular moment and evoke a broader narrative. The Open Photographer of the Year 2025 is Olivier Unia (France), who receives a $5000 (USD) cash prize and Sony digital imaging equipment.
Olivier Unia was chosen from the 10 Open category winners for his photograph Tbourida La Chute, which captures the danger and excitement of the moment a rider is thrown from their mount during a tbourida, a traditional Moroccan equestrian performance.
Commenting on his win, Olivier Unia says: ‘I’m very proud to be the Open Photographer of the Year in this major competition. It gives me the confidence to continue to share my work. I entered Tbourida La Chute, one of the photographs from a project I’ve been working on for the past two years about the Moroccan equestrian art form of tbourida, and I am pleased to see this image recognised.’
STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
The brief for this year’s Student competition was In the Beginning. Students of photography from leading institutions across the world were invited to enter a series documenting the beginning stages of a story. The Student Photographer of the Year 2025 is Micaela Valdivia Medina (Peru), from the Instituto Profesional Arcos in Chile. Micaela Valdivia Medina’s project, The Last Day We Saw the Mountains and the Sea, focuses on female prison spaces across Chile, and the dynamics that shape the lives of incarcerated women and their families.
Commenting on her win, Micaela Valdivia Medina says: ‘To be a winner in the Sony World Photography Awards is very important to me, but also to all the women I worked with for this project. To talk about and photograph prison spaces is never easy, but it is necessary to keep making and sharing these images. As a student, I appreciate this opportunity and recognition. At this time when photography and arts education is in decline, I think it’s important that students, teachers and professional photographers unite to protect it.’
YOUTH PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
For the 2025 Youth competition, photographers aged 19 and under were invited to respond to an Open Call and enter their best images from the last year. The Youth Photographer of the Year 2025, chosen from a shortlist of 11 photographers, is Daniel Dian-Ji Wu (Taiwan, 16 years old) for his arresting image of a skateboarder doing a trick, silhouetted against a sunset in Venice Beach, Los Angeles.
Commenting on his win, Daniel Dian-Ji Wu says: ‘It’s an incredible honour to be named Youth Photographer of the Year. I feel beyond excited and grateful. Photography has been a huge part of my life for the past seven years, so this means so much to me—not just as recognition, but as a reminder of why I love what I do. It opens doors to new opportunities and connections, which makes the journey ahead even more meaningful. I’m really thankful to the Sony World Photography Awards for selecting me and can’t wait to see what’s next.’
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO PHOTOGRAPHY
The prestigious Outstanding Contribution to Photography 2025 is awarded to acclaimed documentary photographer Susan Meiselas. Known for her collaborative approach to portraiture, and for shedding light on lesser-known narratives, Meiselas’ work has been instrumental in shaping contemporary documentary practices, and the conversation around participation in photography.
More than 60 images by Meiselas, including excerpts from some of her landmark series, are on view at Somerset House as part of the Sony World Photography Awards exhibition, showing some of the key themes and narrative trajectories of the past five decades of her practice.
PROFESSIONAL COMPETITION CATEGORY WINNERS AND SHORTLIST
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ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN Category Winner Ulana Switucha, Canada 2nd Place Andre Tezza, Brazil 3rd Place Owen Davies, United Kingdom
Shortlist Alejandro Fernández-Llamazares Vidal, Spain Maciej Leszczynski, Poland Márton Mogyorósy, Hungary Miku Yokoyama, Japan Peter Franck, Germany Yu Ting Lei, China Mainland |
CREATIVE Category Winner Rhiannon Adam, United Kingdom 2nd Place Irina Shkoda, Ukraine 3rd Place Julio Etchart & Holly Birtles, United Kingdom
Shortlist Alice Poyzer, United Kingdom Carolina Krieger, Brazil Giorgia Lisi, Italy Mariana Greif, Uruguay Valentina Fusco, Italy Yinna Higuera, Colombia |
DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS Category Winner Toby Binder, Germany 2nd Place Florence Goupil, Peru 3rd Place Alex Bex, France
Shortlist Alessandro Grassani, Italy Alfredo Bosco, Italy Caroline Gutman, United States Da Yang, China Mainland Giovanni de Mojana, Italy Jodi Windvogel, South Africa Noriko Hayashi, Japan |
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ENVIRONMENT Category Winner Nicolás Garrido Huguet, Peru 2nd Place Maria Portaluppi, Ecuador 3rd Place Cristóbal Olivares, Chile
Shortlist Daniele Vita, Italy Kasia Strek, Poland Matteo Bastianelli, Italy Per-Anders Pettersson, Sweden Shunta Kimura, Japan Skander Khlif, Tunisia |
LANDSCAPE Category Winner Seido Kino, Japan 2nd Place Lalo de Almeida, Brazil 3rd Place Mischa Lluch, Spain
Shortlist Dudu Roth, Israel Francisco Gonzalez Camacho, Spain Gunnar Knechtel, Germany Javi Parejo, Spain Kazuaki Koseki, Japan Lorenzo Poli, Italy Masood Talebi, Islamic Republic of Iran |
PERSPECTIVES Category Winner Laura Pannack, United Kingdom 2nd Place Giovanni Capriotti, Italy 3rd Place Valentin Valette, France
Shortlist Bárbara Monteiro, Portugal Carlos Folgoso Sueiro, Spain Jed Bacason, Philippines Lea Greub, Germany Lina Czerny, Germany Lorraine Turci, France Mauricio Holc, Argentina |
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PORTRAITURE Category winner Gui Christ, Brazil 2nd Place Raúl Belinchón, Spain 3rd Place Tom Franks, United Kingdom
Shortlist Alena Grom, Ukraine Cletus Nelson Nwadike, Sweden Constance Jaeggi O’Connor, Switzerland Ivan Ryaskov, Kazakhstan Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccinni, Italy Niccolò Rastrelli, Italy Stas Ginzburg, United States
WILDLIFE & NATURE Photographer of the Year Zed Nelson, United Kingdom 2nd Place Pascal Beaudenon, France 3rd Place Kevin Shi, United States
Shortlist Amit Eshel, Israel Brent Stirton, South Africa Efrain Sueldo, United States James Wylie, United Kingdom Marielle van Uitert, Netherlands Melina Schildberg, Germany Thomas Nicolon, France |
SPORT Category Winner Chantal Pinzi, Italy 2nd Place Michael Dunn, Bolivia 3rd Place Antonio López Díaz, Spain
Shortlist Matthew Joseph, United Kingdom Mihaela Ivanova, Bulgaria Robin Tutenges, France Svenja Wiese, Germany Tanara Stuermer, Brazil |
STILL LIFE Category Winner Peter Franck, Germany 2nd Place K M Asad, Bangladesh 3rd Place Alessandro Gandolfi, Italy
Shortlist Amanda Harman, United Kingdom Elaine Duigenan, United Kingdom Li Sun, China Mainland Miriam Bräutigam, Germany Oded Wagenstein, Israel Rui Caria, Portugal Shinya Masuda, Japan |
OPEN COMPETITION CATEGORY WINNERS AND SHORTLIST
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ARCHITECTURE Winner Xuecheng Liu, China Mainland Shortlist Alessio D’Addato, Italy Andrew Newman, United Kingdom David Eliud Gil Samaniego Maldonado, Mexico Hans Wichmann, Germany Jason Smith, Australia Max van Son, Netherlands Michael Echteld, Netherlands Michael Echteld, Netherlands Pati John, Netherlands Radek Pohnán, Czechia Robert Fülöp, Romania Thibault Drutel, France Ute-Christa Scherhag, Germany |
CREATIVE Winner Jonell Francisco, Philippines Shortlist Ana Leal, Brazil Ana Peiró Muñoz, United Kingdom Enda Burke, Ireland Hardijanto Budyman, Indonesia Ian Knaggs, United Kingdom Marina Tsaregorodtseva, United Kingdom Mobolaji Ogunrosoye, Nigeria Rachel Nixon, Canada Vida Khani, Islamic Republic Of Iran Yijing Yang, China Mainland |
LANDSCAPE Winner Ng Guang Ze, Singapore Shortlist Dan Liao, China Mainland Francisco Negroni, Chile KunPeng Zhu, China Mainland Marcin Zajac, Poland Martin Stranka, Czechia Patrick Ems, Switzerland Timo Zilz, Germany Victor De Valles Ibañez, Spain Vilhelm Gunnarsson, Iceland Witold Ziomek, Poland Xiaoying Shi, China Mainland Yoshiaki Kudo, Japan Zhu Yang, China Mainland |
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LIFESTYLE Winner Hajime Hirano, Japan Shortlist Barry Mayes, United Kingdom Emma Rogers, New Zealand Enamur Reza, Bangladesh Kathryn Mussallem, Canada Kevin Molano, Colombia Lucero Mora Ardila, Mexico Maira Ray, Brazil Scott Seager, United States Syed Mahabubul Kader, Bangladesh Wan Yong Chong, Malaysia Yaping Du, China Mainland Yevhen Kostiuk, Ukraine Zhang Xun, China Mainland |
MOTION Open Photographer of the Year Olivier Unia, France Shortlist Ahmed Abdallah, Egypt Alex Halloway, United States Antonio Flores García, Mexico Cristopher Rogel Blanquet Chavez, Mexico Eduardo Schneider, United States Hao Guo, China Mainland Joe Wakefield, United Kingdom Leo Huang, Taiwan Nick Alston, United Kingdom Sergey Geller, United States Swee Choo Oh, Malaysia Tim Jenka, Switzerland Tuan Nguyen Tan, Vietnam Wan Yong Chong, Malaysia |
NATURAL WORLD & WILDLIFE Winner Estebane Rezkallah, France Shortlist Anirban Dutta, India Christopher Baker, United States Daniel Hannabuss, United Kingdom Gianni Maitan, Italy Hasan Bağlar, Cyprus Hira Punjabi, India Ilena Fasci, Italy Jake Virus, United States Klára Zamouřilová, Czechia Martin Steenhaut, Belgium Mohammad Anisur Rahman, Bangladesh Pedro Jarque Krebs, Peru Peter Delaney, Ireland Tara Keane, Ireland |
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OBJECT Winner Sussi Charlotte Alminde, Denmark Shortlist Angelo Brancaccio, Italy Carol Santiago, Mexico Edyta Kopcio, Poland Fabi Bick, Germany Ieva Gailė, Lithuania Muhammad Amdad Hossain, Bangladesh Natalia Hresko, Ukraine Oliver Lahrem, Germany Petia Angelova, Bulgaria Rajeev Gaikwad, India Rakibul Alam Khan, Bangladesh Ralf Hanisch, Germany Robert Bolton, United Kingdom Yuting Li, China Mainland |
PORTRAITURE Winner Yeintze Boutamba, Gabon Shortlist Adolphe Maillot, France Elena Subach, Ukraine Emmanuel Lucky, Nigeria Ivana Dostálová, Czechia Mark Harrison, United Kingdom Mark Harrison, United Kingdom Matthieu Quatravaux, France Panagiotis Rontos, Greece Piotr Skubisz, Poland Robbie Murrie, United Kingdom Svetlana Jovanovic, Netherlands |
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY Winner Khairizal Maris, Indonesia Shortlist Angela Magalhães, Portugal Francisco Mira Vicent, Spain Gavin Bragdon, United States Kathryn Mussallem, Canada Manex Sungahid, Philippines Nina Papiorek, Germany Osvaldo Torres Reyes, Mexico Pranto Chakraborty, Bangladesh Samuel Terry, United Kingdom Sean Lim Choon Hean, Malaysia Seyed Ali Hosseini Far, Islamic Republic Of Iran Sohel Ahmed, Bangladesh Stefano Ruggiero, Italy Yusof Salimi Namin, Islamic Republic Of Iran
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TRAVEL Winner Matjaž Šimic, Slovenia Shortlist Akram Menari, Algeria Arun Saha, India Britt Knierim, Netherlands Chim Oanh, Vietnam Karolina Jurkiewicz, Poland Khai Chuin Sim, Malaysia Kunal Gupta, India Liu Song, China Mainland Mike Hellebrand, United Kingdom Nicola Ducati, Italy Ryo Yamamoto, Japan Shubhodeep Roy, India Spyridon Gennatas, Greece |
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STUDENT & YOUTH COMPETITION WINNERS AND SHORTLISTS
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STUDENT COMPETITION |
YOUTH COMPETITION |
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Student Photographer of the Year Micaela Valdivia Medina, Peru Instituto Profesional Arcos, Chile
Shortlist Albert Słowiński, Poland Academy of Art in Szczecin, Poland
Honorata Kornacka, Poland The Maria Grzegorzewska University, Poland
Ilana Grollman, United States Emerson College, United States
Joel Potter, New Zealand Aut University, New Zealand
Louna Pauly, France Ecole Nationale Supérieure Louis Lumière, France
Montenez Lowery, United States Georgia State University, Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design, United States
Peter Stougård Maunsbach, Denmark DMJX Danish School of Media and Journalism, Denmark
Thapelo Mahlangu, South Africa Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography, South Africa
Xingyu Fan, China Mainland Nanjing University of the Arts, China Mainland |
