The Photography Awards has announced the 10 category winners and shortlisted photographers
The Sony World Photography Awards has announced the 10 category winners and shortlisted photographers of its 2026 Open competition, recognising the best single images captured in 2025. Now in its 19th year, the Open competition highlights the strength of individual photographs and their capacity to convey narrative, context and visual impact through a single frame.
The announcement marks a significant stage in the annual photography competition calendar. The Open Photographer of the Year 2026 will be revealed on 16 April at a gala ceremony in London. The winner will receive a $5,000 (USD) cash prize along with a selection of Sony Digital Imaging equipment.
Across all competition strands in 2026, the Awards received more than 430,000 images from over 200 countries and territories. This volume of submissions positions the Sony World Photography Awards among the largest and most internationally represented photography competitions worldwide.
Open Competition 2026: Recognising the Power of a Single Image
A global photography competition focused on standalone images
Unlike the Professional competition, which evaluates bodies of work, the Open competition centres on a single photograph. The structure emphasises clarity of concept, technical execution and visual storytelling within one frame. According to the organisers, the format encourages photographers to submit their strongest image from the past year.
The 2026 jury selected winners across ten categories: Architecture, Creative, Landscape, Lifestyle, Motion, Natural World & Wildlife, Object, Portraiture, Street Photography and Travel. The competition was judged by Ruby Rees-Sheridan, Assistant Curator of Photography at the National Portrait Gallery.
Category Winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2026 Open Competition
Architecture Photography: Industrial Form and Atmosphere
In the Architecture category, Markus Naarttijärvi (Sweden) won for his photograph of a paper mill in Obbola, Sweden. The image captures the industrial structure under layered shadows, concrete surfaces and dense cloud cover on a November night. The composition emphasises geometry, tonal contrast and spatial depth—key elements in contemporary architecture photography.
Creative Photography: Symbolism and Staged Portraiture
Siavosh Ejlali (Iran) received the Creative category award for Lost Hope. The image uses staged and symbolic components to construct a portrait addressing themes related to Iranian women. The work demonstrates how conceptual photography can merge narrative intention with controlled visual design.
Landscape Photography: Desert Geometry in Namibia
J Fritz Rumpf (United States) won the Landscape category for Shapes and Patterns of the Desert, photographed in Sossusvlei, Namibia. The image studies geometric formations and colour gradations of sand dunes. Landscape photography in this context focuses not only on location but also on light direction, tonal compression and compositional abstraction.
Lifestyle Photography: Rural Intimacy in West Virginia
Vanta Coda III (United States) secured the Lifestyle category with Charlotte and Dolly, portraying a young woman resting with her cow in a barn during summer heat in West Virginia. The image situates portraiture within a documentary context, highlighting human-animal relationships in rural settings.
Motion Photography: Concert Energy Through Blur
Franklin Littlefield (United States) won the Motion category with a motion-blur image taken during a punk concert in Providence, Rhode Island. The photograph uses slow shutter speed to render movement as streaks and dynamic forms, a technique frequently employed in concert photography and action photography to convey intensity.
Wildlife Photography: Arctic Conditions in Norway
Klaus Hellmich (Germany) received the Natural World & Wildlife award for his image of a blue Arctic fox in a blizzard on the Varanger Peninsula, Norway. The subject stands alone against wind and snow. Wildlife photography at this level requires field preparation, weather awareness and telephoto precision.
Object Photography: Urban Colour Juxtaposition
Robby Ogilvie (United Kingdom) won the Object category with Colour Divides, featuring a blue car positioned against green and pink buildings in the Bo-Kaap district of Cape Town, South Africa. The photograph examines chromatic contrast and spatial alignment within urban environments.
Portrait Photography: The Barefoot Volcanologist
Elle Leontiev (Australia) secured the Portraiture category with The Barefoot Volcanologist, depicting Phillip, a self-taught volcano scientist, standing on volcanic rock on Tanna Island, Vanuatu. The portrait integrates environmental context, reinforcing how environmental portrait photography situates subject identity within landscape.
Street Photography: Candid Observation in Norway
Giulia Pissagroia (Italy) won the Street Photography category for Between the Lines, a black-and-white candid photograph taken at Ørnevegen (Eagle Road), Norway. The image captures a family reacting to the view, highlighting spontaneous expression—an essential element of street photography.
Travel Photography: Abare Festival in Japan
Megumi Murakami (Japan) received the Travel category award for her photograph of the Abare Festival in the Noto region of Japan. The image documents participants leaping into a river amid torchlight, representing a tradition spanning more than three centuries. Travel photography in this context merges cultural documentation with dynamic night shooting conditions.
Shortlisted Photographers: International Representation
Beyond the winners, the Open competition shortlist includes photographers from Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America and Oceania. The shortlisted names reflect geographic diversity and a wide range of stylistic approaches, reinforcing the international scope of the Sony World Photography Awards 2026.
Shortlisted works across categories include architectural studies, staged conceptual portraits, wildlife encounters, documentary street scenes and travel reportage. This breadth underlines the competition’s role in mapping current trends in contemporary photography.
Exhibition at Somerset House, London
Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition 2026
A selection of winning and shortlisted images will be presented at Somerset House from 17 April to 4 May 2026. The exhibition will subsequently tour internationally. The annual exhibition has become a key event for photography professionals, collectors and the wider public interested in global photographic practice.
The Open Photographer of the Year will be announced during the Awards ceremony on 16 April 2026 in London, alongside winners from the Student, Youth and Professional competitions.
World Photography Organisation and Industry Context
The Awards are produced by the World Photography Organisation, the principal photography programme of Creo. Established in 2007, the Sony World Photography Awards has developed into one of the most widely recognised international photography competitions.
In parallel with the Open competition results, the Awards continue to recognise lifetime achievement through the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award. The 2026 recipient is the American photographer Joel Meyerowitz, joining previous honourees including William Eggleston, Mary Ellen Mark, Martin Parr, Graciela Iturbide, Edward Burtynsky, Sebastião Salgado and Susan Meiselas.
Global Photography Competition 2026
The announcement of the Sony World Photography Awards 2026 Open competition winners reinforces the event’s position within the international photography competition landscape. With more than 430,000 submissions and representation from over 200 countries and territories, the Awards continue to provide visibility for both emerging and established photographers.
For photographers, curators and industry professionals, the Open competition results offer insight into prevailing trends across architecture photography, landscape photography, portrait photography, street photography, wildlife photography and travel photography in 2025. Further announcements, including the Open Photographer of the Year 2026, will follow in April via worldphoto.org.
