\n
\u2022 Zed Nelson receives prestigious Photographer of the Year title
\n\u2022 Susan Meiselas honoured as the 2025 Outstanding Contribution to Photography
\n\u2022 10 Professional category winners additionally announced
\n\u2022 Exhibition opens at London\u2019s Somerset House from 17 April – 5 May<\/p>\n
(Dubai, United Arab Emirates,20 April 2025) \u2013 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\u2019s winners and their achievements.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Nelson was selected from the 10 Professional competition category winners, who were announced at today\u2019s ceremony, alongside the 2nd and 3rd place finalists in each category. The evening\u2019s programme additionally recognised the overall winners of the Awards\u2019 Open, Student and Youth competitions. Also honoured during the course of the evening was this year\u2019s Outstanding Contribution to Photography recipient, the acclaimed documentary photographer Susan Meiselas.<\/p>\n
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 \u2013 5 May, presenting over 300 prints and hundreds of images in digital displays, as well as a special presentation by Susan Meiselas.<\/p>\n
PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
\nThe 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 \u2018Anthropocene\u2019, a term for the current period in Earth\u2019s history which is characterised by humans being the dominant influence on the environment, Nelson\u2019s series focuses on humanity\u2019s response to its impact on the planet. The project looks at artificial spaces, created by humans as a means to \u2018experience\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
Commenting on Zed Nelson\u2019s winning project, Monica Allende, Chair of the 2025 Professional jury says: \u2018The jury applauded Nelson\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.\u2019<\/p>\n
PROFESSIONAL CATEGORY WINNERS
\nThe 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Professional winners and finalists, please visit worldphoto.org.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s winners are:<\/p>\n
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
\nWINNER: Ulana Switucha (Canada) for The Tokyo Toilet Project
\nFinalists: 2nd place Andre Tezza (Brazil); 3rd place Owen Davies (United Kingdom)<\/p>\n
CREATIVE
\nWINNER: Rhiannon Adam (United Kingdom) for Rhi-Entry
\nFinalists: 2nd place Irina Shkoda (Ukraine); 3rd place Julio Etchart & Holly Birtles (United Kingdom)<\/p>\n
DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS
\nWINNER: Toby Binder (Germany) for Divided Youth of Belfast
\nFinalists: 2nd place Florence Goupil (Peru); 3rd place Alex Bex (France)<\/p>\n
ENVIRONMENT
\nWINNER: Nicol\u00e1s Garrido Huguet (Peru) for Alquimia Textil
\nFinalists: 2nd place Maria Portaluppi (Ecuador); 3rd place Crist\u00f3bal Olivares (Chile)<\/p>\n
LANDSCAPE
\nWINNER: Seido Kino (Japan) for The Strata of Time
\nFinalists: 2nd place Lalo de Almeida (Brazil), 3rd place Mischa Lluch (Spain)<\/p>\n
PERSPECTIVES
\nWINNER: Laura Pannack (United Kingdom) for The Journey Home from School
\nFinalists: 2nd place Giovanni Capriotti (Italy); 3rd place Valentin Valette (France)<\/p>\n
PORTRAITURE
\nWINNER: Gui Christ (Brazil) for M\u2019kumba
\nFinalists: 2nd place Ra\u00fal Belinch\u00f3n (Spain); 3rd place Tom Franks (United Kingdom)<\/p>\n
SPORT
\nWINNER: Chantal Pinzi (Italy) for Shred the Patriarchy
\nFinalists: 2nd place Michael Dunn (Bolivia); 3rd place Antonio L\u00f3pez D\u00edaz (Spain)<\/p>\n
STILL LIFE
\nWINNER: Peter Franck (Germany) for Still Waiting
\nFinalists: 2nd place KM Asad (Bangladesh); 3rd place Alessandro Gandolfi (Italy)<\/p>\n
WILDLIFE & NATURE
\nWINNER: Zed Nelson (United Kingdom) for The Anthropocene Illusion
\nFinalists: 2nd place Pascal Beaudenon (France); 3rd place Kevin Shi (United States)<\/p>\n
OPEN PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
\nThe 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Commenting on his win, Olivier Unia says: \u2018I\u2019m 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.\u2019<\/p>\n
STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
\nThe brief for this year\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Commenting on her win, Micaela Valdivia Medina says: \u2018To 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\u2019s important that students, teachers and professional photographers unite to protect it.\u2019<\/p>\n
YOUTH PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
\nFor 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.<\/p>\n
Commenting on his win, Daniel Dian-Ji Wu says: \u2018It\u2019s 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\u2014not 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\u2019m really thankful to the Sony World Photography Awards for selecting me and can\u2019t wait to see what\u2019s next.\u2019<\/p>\n
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO PHOTOGRAPHY
\nThe 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\u2019 work has been instrumental in shaping contemporary documentary practices, and the conversation around participation in photography.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0her\u00a0practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2022 Zed Nelson receives prestigious Photographer of the Year title \u2022 Susan Meiselas honoured as the 2025 Outstanding Contribution to Photography \u2022 10 Professional category winners additionally announced \u2022 Exhibition opens at London\u2019s Somerset House from 17 April – 5 May (Dubai, United Arab Emirates,20 April 2025) \u2013 The Sony World Photography Awards announced today …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[439],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-news"],"yoast_head":"\n