Sony World Photography Awards are back for a 19th year and open for entries! Produced by Creo under its photography strand, the World Photography Organisation, the internationally acclaimed Sony World Photography Awards is one of the best competitions in the global photographic calendar. No matter your level or genre there is a category for you. Entering the Open competition? Use the code APHOTO20 for extra entries! See below more information on our special offer from Sony World Photography Awards just for the AP Community.
Categories
- Professional (series)
- Open (single images)
- Student (series responding to 2026 brief ‘Together’)
- Youth (single images shot by photographers aged 19 and under)
Prizes
- Up to $25,000
- Sony Digital Imaging equipment
- See your work included in must-see exhibitions in London and worldwide
- Build your profile as a photographer with local and international press coverage – including in AP!
- Enjoy a glamorous black-tie Awards ceremony in London attended by industry leaders, press and media
- Your work promoted to the World Photography Organisation community
- Elevate your career regardless of whether you’re a beginner or a professional
Deadlines
Professional: 13 January 2026, 13:00 GMT
Open: 6 January 2026, 13:00 GMT
Student: 28 November 2025, 13:00 GMT
Youth: 6 January 2026, 13:00 GMT
Judging panel announced
Following a successful 2025 edition – which saw over 419,000 images entered into the competition – and now in their 19th year, the internationally acclaimed Awards welcome back Monica Allende for her third year as Chair of the Jury for the Professional Competition and curator of the London exhibition at Somerset House.
Joining Allende is a panel of leading figures from across the photography industry, each contributing their unique expertise and insight into the medium. The 2026 jury comprises:
Professional competition:
- Monica Allende, Independent Curator and Photography Consultant, Chair of the Jury
- Daniel Brena, Director, Centro de las Artes de San Agustín, Mexico
- Yumi Goto, Independent Curator, Editor, Researcher and Publisher, Japan
- Zack Hatfield, Managing Editor, Aperture magazine, USA
- Paul Ninson, Founder and Executive Director, Dikan Center, Ghana
- Bindi Vora, Artist and Senior Curator, Autograph, UK
Open & Youth competitions:
- Ruby Rees-Sheridan, Assistant Curator, Photography, National Portrait Gallery, UK
- Student competition: Tess Raimbeau, Photo Editor, Libération, France
Free bundle of 20 images for the Open competition
Sony World Photography Awards have given us a very special offer for the AP Community! Here is an additional free 20 images for entering the Open competition, meaning you can enter 23 images for free instead of just 3!
Open competition information:
- Free to enter and open to anyone submitting single images taken in 2025
- Enter up to three single images for free
- Ten diverse categories to enter
- Awards category winners plus up to 15 shortlisted photographers per category
- One overall winner receives the Open Photographer of the Year title
How to redeem?
To redeem the free bundle of 20 images, photographers will need to follow the steps below:
1. Create an account on the WPO website (or log in if you already have an account): https://users.worldphoto.org/user
2. Click on the Image Bundles tab
3. Select the 20 image bundle
4. Add the promo code APHOTO20 in the ‘Enter promo code here’ tab and click ‘Apply code’
5. Click Continue to PayPal and the allocation of images will appear in the account (should show as £0.00)
2026 exhibition information
The Sony World Photography Awards 2026 exhibition opens at Somerset House, London from 17 April to 4 May 2026. A fixture of the annual photography calendar, the celebrated London exhibition – curated by Monica Allende – features a selection of winning and shortlisted images from the 2026 Awards, as well as special presentations by the 2025 Photographer of the Year Zed Nelson and this year’s Outstanding Contribution to Photography recipient, who will be announced in November.
Following the London exhibition, subsequent presentations in the spring in Tokyo and an ongoing exhibition in Milan, Italy (until 28 September 2025), the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 exhibition travels next to Berlin, Germany (16 October 2025 -18 January 2026).
Best photography exhibitions to see
More competition news:
- The rare and wonderful – Wildlife Photographer of the Year does it again!
- Bird Photographer of the Year. The shot that stunned the world
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