Check out these spectacular Sony World Photography Awards 2018 entries

This striking image of a scuba diver in a cave in Mexico is one of a selection of entries released from the Sony World Photography Awards 2018.

The image was taken by Joana Villar when cave diving in Cenote Tajma-Ha, where high levels of tannic acid in the water create the yellowish tinge that makes this shot so other-worldly.

These entries are from the Open competition, which runs alongside the Professional, Youth, Student Focus and National awards. The photos have been released to celebrate the announcement of the juries for the competition.

They will be judged by curator Zelda Cheatle, who gave her best advice for photographers entering their photos.

She said: “Be sincere, think about the message within your work, keep it simple and work from the heart.”

The photos in this competition are judged on a single shot across ten categories, ranging from contemporary issues to natural world and wildlife.

This shot by F. Dilek Uyar shows villagers of Hörmetçi in Kayseri, Turkey, catching wild horses to domesticate them.

Mr Uyar described the ceremony: “Catching the horses from reed-filled land and taking them in to be domesticated is like a visual ceremony that one only can see in movies.”

“A horse is a symbol of freedom in Turkish folkloric culture, and one can deeply feel this while watching and taking picture of Yılkı horses,” he added.

This photograph taken by Songshen Jiang shows Hong Kong from another angle, captured with a drone to get this bird’s eye perspective.

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The deadline for entrants in the Open competition is January 4, 2018, with the shortlist announced on February 27, 2018.

See some of the other spectacular entries below.

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