Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Finalists and Shortlists Show The Beauty and Challenges of Human Experience

The Sony World Photography Awards has revealed the finalists and shortlisted photographers in its 2025 Professional competition. This year, human experiences seem to be the dominant theme across the competition, exploring community, memory, resilience, and change.

Developed by World Photography Organization, the competition highlights powerful storytelling and technical excellence. This year, there were a staggering 419,000 submissions from over 200 countries. And it seems that the human experience is the main topic, in one way or another. Many images document how people shape and are shaped by their environments. Some show the effects of war and migration or the evolving relationship between humans and nature. Others focus on cultural heritage, traditions, and struggles.

Even in categories like landscape, environment, and still life, the human imprint is clear—whether it’s light pollution affecting astronomers, deforestation in Brazil, or the ways we artificially recreate nature in the face of climate change.

The Sony World Photography Awards features ten old categories, and a new one, Japan Professional Award:

1. Architecture & design: Andre Tezza (Brazil), Owen Davies (United Kingdom), Ulana Switucha (Canada)
2. Creative: Irina Shkoda (Ukraine), Julio Etchart & Holly Birtles (United Kingdom), Rhiannon Adam (United Kingdom)
3. Documentary projects: Alex Bex (France), Florence Goupil (Peru), Toby Binder (Germany)
4. Environment: Cristóbal Olivares (Chile), Maria Portaluppi (Ecuador), Nicolás Garrido Huguet (Peru)
5. Landscape: Lalo de Almeida (Brazil), Mischa Lluch (Spain), Seido Kino (Japan)
6. Perspectives: Giovanni Capriotti (Italy), Laura Pannack (United Kingdom), Valentin Valette (France)
7. Portraiture: Gui Christ (Brazil), Raúl Belinchón (Spain), Tom Franks (United Kingdom)
8. Sport: Antonio López Díaz (Spain), Chantal Pinzi (Italy), Michael Dunn (Bolivia)
9. Still life: Alessandro Gandolfi (Italy), K M Asad (Bangladesh), Peter Franck (Germany)
10. Wildlife & nature: Kevin Shi (United States), Pascal Beaudenon (France), Zed Nelson (United Kingdom)

As mentioned, the contest introduces a new category this year, Japan Professional Award. It focuses on Japanese photographers who entered their series into the Professional competition. The inaugural winner of the Japan Professional Award is Noriko Hayashi for her project Life at the Crossroads: Midwives in Afghanistan. She documented the arduous work and the resilience of Afghan midwives operating under the Taliban regime.

The shortlisted photographers in the new category are Miku Yokoyama (Architecture & Design), Seido Kino (Landscape), Shinya Masuda (Still Life) and Shunta Kimura (Environment).

After the shortlists, we’ll get the winners. of course. They will be announced on April 16 in London. The full exhibition will open at Somerset House on April 17, 2025, featuring the winning and shortlisted works before traveling worldwide. Enjoy the selection of finalists below, and make sure to visit the contest website to view full gallery.