One of the best photography competitions, the winners of the 18th edition of the Sony World Photography Awards have been announced at a gala ceremony in London.
Split into “Open” and “Professional” categories, the overall title of Photographer of the Year 2025 was awarded to British photographer Zed Nelson for the series The Anthropocene Illusion. For the work, Nelson receives a $25,000 cash prize, as well as a range of Sony digital imaging equipment plus the opportunity to display an additional body of work at next year’s (2026) Sony World Photography Awards.
The overall winner was chosen from the ten Professional competition category winners, who were also named at the ceremony, as well as the 2nd and 3rd place finalists in each category.
While the Professional category prizes are awarded for portfolios of work, the Open award celebrates the single image. Here, the overall Open Photographer of the Year 2025 is Olivier Unia from France, who received a $5000 cash prize, plus Sony digital imaging equipment. The winning image was selected from the 10 Open category winners for the photograph Tbourida La Chute, which depicts a traditional Moroccan equestrian performance.
Also announced was the Student Photographer of the Year, which was awarded to Micaela Valdivia Medina (Peru) from the Instituto Profesional Arcos in Chile. Her project, The Last Day We Saw the Mountains and the Sea documents female prison spaces across Chile.
Additionally, the Youth Photographer of the Year – open to those aged 19 and under – was awarded to 16-year-old Daniel Dian-Ji Wu from Taiwan for his image of a skateboarder performing a trick, the figure silhouetted against the sunset in Venice Beach, Los Angeles.
Finally, the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Prize 2025 was awarded to the acclaimed documentary photographer Susan Meiselas. More than 60 of her images from over the past five decades of her career form part of the extensive show currently running at Somerset House.
Below, I’ve highlighted a selection of some of my favourites from this years’ winners. If you can’t make it along to the exhibition, be sure to check out the Sony World Photography Awards website for more fantastic imagery.
The Anthropocene Illusion by Zed Nelson
1st Place, Wildlife & Nature and Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year 2025
This long-term documentary project spans six years and four continents. It looks at the fractured relationship between humans and the natural world. The concept ‘Anthropocene’ characterises the current period in Earth’s history, where humans are the dominant influence on the environment. As such, the project seeks to look at humanity’s response to its own impact on the planet. Artificial spaces designed for humans to interact with the nature are the focus of much of the work, exploring the desire to stay connected to nature alongside the dissonance of destruction which is caused by human activity.
The chair of the 2025 Professional jury, Monica Allende, said, “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.”
Tbourida La Chute by Olivier Unia
1st Place, Motion Category (Open) and Open Photographer of the Year 2025
This striking image captures the danger and excitement of the moment a rider is thrown from their mount during a ‘tbourida’, which is a traditional Moroccan equestrian performance. Unia has been working on his project for the last two years. For this image, he wanted to show how dangerous it can be when a rider is thrown from their mount. Typically, photos of the ‘tbourida’ usually show the riders firing their rifles.
The Journey Home From School by Laura Pannack
1st place, Perspectives Category, Professional Competition
British photographer Laura Pannack’s project explores that near-universal experience of making our way from home from school. For it, she documented the lives of young peple living in the gang-governed Cape Flats area of Cape Town, South Africa, where their daily commute carries the risk of death. For the project, Pannack used lo-fi experimental techniques. As well as analogue photography, there’s also poetry, drawings, collages and even cyanotypes. With it, she aims to provide us with a rare insight into a rare and challenging world.
Rhi-Entry by Rhiannon Adam
1st Place, Creative Category, Professional Competition
In 2018, the Japanese billionaire and art collector Yusaku Mazawa announced a global search for eight artists to join him on a week-long lunar mission about SpaceX’s Starship, the first civilian mission into space. From over one million applicants, the British photographer Rhiannon Adam was chosen as the only female crew member for the mission. From 2021, she spent three years deeply immersing herself in the space industry, only for the mission to be abruptly cancelled in 2024, leaving the crew to pick up the pieces of their disrupted lives. Rhi-Entry is Adam’s document of that time.
Divided Youth of Belfast by Toby Binder
1st Place, Documentary Category, Professional Competition
German photographer Toby Binder has been documenting the youth of Belfast for many years. All of his subjects were born after the peace agreement was signed, but are still growing up amid intergenerational tension in both Protestant and Catholic neighbourhoods. Binder says, “there is hardly any other country in Europe where a past conflict is still as present in daily life as it is Northern Ireland.” The people who live here are affected not only by physical barriers, but also psychological divisions within their society.
M’kumba by Gui Christ
1st Place, Portraiture Category, Professional Competition
This ongoing project looks at how Afro-Brazilian communities react to local religious intolerance. The name of the project comes from an ancient Kongo word for spiritual leaders, which has since been distorted by local society to demean African religion. Nearly 5 million African people were brought to Brazil over the course of 300 years, losing their freedoms and having their spiritualities persecuted by colonial ideologies. Until 1970, Afro-Brazilian religions were criminalised, and even today, many still face violence and prejudice – more than 2000 attacks were reported last year alone. More than half of Brazilians are of Afro-descent, but fewer than 2% identify as Afro-religious due to fear of persecution. Photographer Gui Christ is an Afro-religious priest in training themselves, and as such wanted to photograph the young and proud generation to challenge prejudices while also celebrating spiritual traditions.
The Chad Olympic Team by Antonio López Díaz
3rd Place, Sport Category, Professional Competition
This project follows the story of four girls from Chad who received scholarships to move to Spain to pursue their dream of becoming professional gymnasts. Starting in 2019, the goal was for the girls to represent Chad at the Paris 2024 Olympic games. Sadly, the quartet did not qualify, but the story has still had a transformative effect on the nation, leading to the creation of Chad’s first gymnastics federation, with five clubs already registered. Despite not achieving one goal, they have still shown how educational and sports opportunities can dramatically change the lives of both individuals and entire communities.
The Second by Tom Franks
3rd Place, Portrait Category, Professional Competition
Spending over two weeks in Prescott, Arizona, British photographer Tom Franks visited the homes of many of the city’s residents to learn more about how gun ownership has become normalised in the States. Ironically, part of the reason why the Second Amendment was written (the right to keep and bear arms) was so that US citizens would be sufficiently ready for a British invasion, should it happen. The irony of a British person knocking on the door and being welcomed in was not lost on Franks.
The Strata of Time by Seido Kino
1st Place, Landscape Category, Professional Competition
By overlaying archival photographs from the 1940s-1960s with current scenes of the same location, Kino’s project asks the viewer to consider the advantages and disadvantages of growth in a country. For Japan, a period of rapid economic growth took place between 1945 to 1973, but the trade-off was pollution. The aim of the project is to help others think about how to prevent similar problems from reoccurring in the future.
© Seido Kino, Japan, Winner, Professional competition, Landscape, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
Always one of the best photography exhibitions of the year, more than 300 pictures can be seen in the show of the winners, runners-up and shortlisted images currently taking place at Somerset House, London until 5 May. Tickets £17.50 (concessions available). Visit somersethouse.org.uk to buy tickets and to check opening times.
Related news:
